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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 
AND SCHOOL READINGS 

UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF 

W. M. DAVIDSON 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF TOPEKA, KANSAS 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS 
OF KANSAS 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS AND SCHOOL READINGS 



PLANTS AND FliOWERS 
OF KANSAS 



BEENAED B. SMYTH, 

Librarian Kansas Academy of Science, and Curator of Kansas 
State Herbarium. 



Crane & Company, Publishers 

Topeka, Kansas 

1900 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
One Copy Received 

FEB 20 1906 

Copyri^m Entry 

(CLASS XXc. No. 

COPY A. 



Copyrighted by 

Crane & Company, Topeka, Kansas 

1900 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. Modifying Factors in Plant Life . 7 

1. Altitude 7 

2. Soils 8 

3. Temperature 12 

4. Eainfall 15 

5. Humidity 16 

6. Cloudiness 17 

7. Winds 17 

8. Exposure 18 

Chapter II. Plant Societies 19 

1. Water Plants 19 

2. Marsh Plants 22 

a. Grasses and Sedges 22 

b. Trees and Shrubs 23 

c. Herbs 26 

3. Woodland Vegetation 28 

a. Trees and Shrubs 28 

February and March 28 

April 30 

May 33 

b. Vines 39 

c. Herbs 42 

4. Prairie Flowers 48 

a. April Flowers 49 

b. May Flowers 53 

c. June Flowers 57 

d. Summer Flowers 59 

e. Autumn Flowers 61 

5. Sandhill Vegetation 63 

a. Spring Bloomers 63 

b. Summer Bloomers 66 

6. Salt-Marsh Vegetation 68 

(5) 



6 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page. 

7. Plants of the Plains 70 

a. Adaptations 70 

b. Sequence of Flowers 74 

March 74 

April 74 

May 75 

June 79 

July 82 

Chapter III. Plant Habits 86 

1. Annual Phenomena 86 

2. Diurnal Phenomena 88 

3. Floral Clock for Kansas 93 

Notes on the Clock 97 

4. Insect Friends 98 

5. Sensitiveness in Flowers 99 

6. Sensitiveness in Plants 99 

a. To Touch 99 

b. To Gravity 100 

c. To Contiguity of Objects 100 

d. To Atmospheric Influences 103 

e. To Time 104 

/. To Light and Heat 104 

Chapter IV. Pollination and Reproduction 106 

1. Methods of Reproduction 106 

a. Male Flowers 107 

b. Female Flowers 108 

c. Neutral Flowers , 109 

d. Peculiarities of Floral Organs 109 

2. Fertilization Ill 

3. Provision for Crossing 115 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS. 



CHAPTER I. 

MODIFYING FACTORS IN PLANT LIFE. 

Kansas, situated as it is on the confines of three dif- 
ferent floras, and embracing many of the types of each, is 
well represented by many plants of widely dissimilar char- 
acter. Altitude, soil, temperature, and rainfall are 
features that most strongly characterize the flora; other 
features are humidity, cloudiness, winds, and exposure. 

1.— ALTITUDE. 

The altitude of the State varies from 750 feet above 
sea-level, at the mouth of the Kansas river, on the east 
line of the State, to 4,000 feet on the west line of the 
State, between the Kansas and Arkansas rivers. 

A small portion of the easternmost part of the State, 
mostly below 1,000 feet altitude, is partially covered 
with timber, and contains a very large percentage of the 
plants of the Mississippi valley. The western half of the 
State, 1,000 to 2,500 feet higher, contains nearly all 
species of plants of the Great Plains which are found 
from northern Texas to British North America. The 
southeasternmost corner of the State, and a few of the 
counties along the south line, in the eastern part of the 
State, mostly below 1,000 feet altitude, contain a large 

(7) 



8 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



sprinkling of southern plants, not essentially subtropical, 
which grow all through the Southern and Southwestern 
States. There are no alpine or arctic plants in the State 
worth mentioning as such. 

There are no great elevations to be found in the State. 
The rise from the eastern line of the State to the western 
line, interspersed as the State is with river valleys, is 
very gradual and in most cases quite imperceptible. In 
no place is the difference in elevation between the highest 
headlands and the bottom of the adjacent valleys greater 
than about 250 feet; and in most cases it is much less. 

2.— SOILS. 

Soils are largely controlled by geological formations 
which overlap each other in a regular ascending series 
from east to west, beginning with the Subcarboniferous 
in the southeastern corner of the State, followed by the 
Carboniferous in the eastern third, the Cretaceous in the 
central part, and ending with the Tertiary in the north- 
western corner of the State. 

There is a large triangular tract, comprising about 
seven counties, in the south-central part of the State, 
with its apex in the "great bend" of the Arkansas river, 
and its base on the south line of the State, from Caldwell 
west to the Cimarron river, near Englewood, which may 
be appropriately called the great Red Delta of Kansas, in 
which the formation (known as "red beds") appears to be 
of Triassic age, between the Carboniferous and Cretaceous. 
Its principal characteristic is red earth. 

Lines of outcrop as they strike across the State are 
nearly north and south, varying a little to the eastward of 
north and westward of south, but without crossing the 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



9 



Arkansas river. This causes zones of similar soil to 
extend across the State from north to south. 

Soils in the eastern part of the State are made up of 
clays, limestones, and shales, containing a very fine, al- 
most impalpable, grit. They are moderately fertile, 
especially where covered with alluvial deposits. 

In many places south of the Kansas river the hills are 
almost barren, consisting of unreduced shales and lime- 
stones. 

The northeastern corner of the State, as far south as the 
Kansas river and west to the Blue, is covered on the hills 
and plains with what is called "drift," material brought 
in from the north by ice action and reassorted by water. 
It is, wherever found, of the most fertile character, both 
as regards tillage and ability to retain water. 

Soils in the central portion of the State are largely 
sandy, with good admixtures of lime, salt, gypsum, and 
loam, making lands that are light, easily worked, and of 
the most inexhaustible fertility. Water is abundant, 
nearly everywhere, at depths of fifteen feet or more. 

An important feature of the soils in the great red delta 
south of the Arkansas river is their bright red color, like 
brickdust or darker, as though the earth were colored with 
oxide of iron. These soils, where long exposed and mixed 
with humus, are exceedingly fertile; and, even where 
the soils are fresh and the admixture of humus is small, 
these soils are found to be excellent wheat lands. 

In very many places in Sedgwick, Reno, Stafford, and 
Edwards counties, these red lands are covered with a 
very fine sand, largely blown up from the Arkansas river 
by the north winds of winter when the river is usually 
dry. Such soils, when the sand is deep, are usually too 



10 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



light to be valuable, and their recommendation is their 
ability to hold moisture in dry seasons. In places, owing 
to the purity of the shifting sand, nothing whatever 
grows; in other places straggling plum bushes and sand- 
grass (Calamovilfa) are about all that may be seen. 
Again, where there is a greater admixture of humus, all 
kinds of sand-hill vegetation grow in great profusion. 

In many places, where there is no sand, the soils are 
highly gypsiferous and saline, having the power to absorb 
much moisture from the air and underlying water 
stratum, and hence are moist and fruitful nearly all 
seasons. 

Soils in the northwestern part of the State are largely 
composed of clays, gravels, and coarse sand, being here 
quite fertile and there quite barren. These soils are 
generally fruitful; though not so much so as the cre- 
taceous and saline lands of the interior. Water is absent 
in most places, but abundant in certain zones, as though 
occupying the ancient channels of buried river valleys. 
Artesian water of the purest quality is obtainable. 

Soils in the lower Kansas valley are composed of finely 
comminuted chalk, sand, and alluvium. In most places 
they are mixed in various proportions. In many places, 
by reason of the sorting power of water during floods, 
the chalk and sand, being of different specific gravities, 
are separated and deposited nearly pure. Afterward they 
are acted upon by the wind to some extent and rendered 
impure. 

Soils in which chalk largely predominates are to be 
seen in the valley near Topeka, near Tecumseh, and 
other places; they are mostly gray or whitish, the earth 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 11 

finely comminuted; do not rise readily by the wind; 
and have a moderate capacity for holding water. The 
chalk was brought down by the Republican, Solomon, 
Saline, and Smoky Hill rivers, from western Kansas. 

Soils in which sand predominates may be found almost 
anywhere in the valley not far from the river, or not 
far from an old river-bed where the river once ran. 
Sand is carried down by all the rivers of Kansas, mostly 
from central Kansas and eastern Colorado. Sandy soils 
have good capacity for holding water. 

Gumbo lands are found in low spots remote from the 
rivers and creeks; or at least far enough away from the 
rivers that no sand is deposited during an overflow. The 
clay of the muddy water of a river is held in suspension 
longer, carried farther from the stream, and deposited in 
lower grounds, old river-beds, etc., where the currents are 
comparatively slack, or where the water rests after the 
flood has receded. Gumbo soils are impervious to water. 
They are very wet and glutinous in wet weather; very 
dry, caked, and cracked in dry weather. 

In an overflow of any river, when the muddy water is 
carried all over the valley, the sand is deposited first and 
nearest the stream ; chalk next, and farther out ; heavier 
clays next, where the currents are slack; and the lighter, 
more soluble clays last, where there is no current. 

That accounts for the lands of a valley next to a river 
being higher than those remote from the river bank, when 
the valley is broad enough not to be affected by wash 
from the hills. That gives in any valley a variety of soils, 
which necessarily influences vegetation. 

The Arkansas valley, from Colorado to the Oklahoma 



12 



TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 



line, was once very deep in most of its course. It is now 
filled up with sand from 20 or 30 to 150 feet deep, over- 
laid by a covering of a sandy, earthy, alluvial soil from 
6 to 18 feet deep. The substratum of sand is filled to the 
top with water. The surface of the water is usually from 
one-half to two and one-half feet above the water of the 
river, owing to capillary attraction of the earth. (It is 
less during a rise or freshet.) 

Thus, vegetation, being able to reach permanent moist- 
ure with its roots, is necessarily of a different character 
from the vegetation of the high plains. And being 
adapted, in its aboveground parts, to the hot sunshine 
and strong dry winds, is essentially different from the 
vegetation of a moist climate in the same latitude. 

Thus it will be seen that, not only does the nature of 
the soil modify vegetation, but the condition of the soil 
as regards water-supply and its capacity for absorbing it, 
also modifies it. 

3.— TEMPEEATUEE. 

The northwestern corner of the State has the lowest 
average temperature, and there are no so-called subarctic 
plants to be found, with the exception of a very few. The 
mean temperature of the State is between 54 and 55 
degrees, along a line drawn from Troy and Atchison, near 
the northeast corner, through the center of the State, to 
the southwest corner. The mean temperature of the 
northwest corner is about five degrees lower and of the 
southeast corner about three degrees higher than the cen- 
tral portion. 

The mean temperature of the three summer months in 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS. 13 

the central part of the State is 76 °, and of the three 
winter months is 31°. The mean temperature of the per- 
manent subterranean water-supply, as determined by wells 
15 to 25 feet deep, throughout the central part of the State, 
is about 53 degrees; in fall and winter about two degrees 
higher, and in May and June, when it is lowest, about 
two degrees lower. Deep wells remain about 52° to 53° 
all the year around. 

The highest temperature at the surface of the ground 
on the open prairie in the western part of the State is 
133°, and on a sandy southern hillside may be as high as 
142° at 2:30 in the afternoon. Such temperatures may 
be experienced any very hot day in July and August, 
when record thermometers register 99° to 102°. 

Observations on earth temperatures, made by the writer 
in Barton county, central Kansas, in 1875 to 1879, showed 
that the earth frequently attained such temperatures as 
these, even when the air at the surf ace was no higher than 
122°; one inch below the surface, 133°; two inches be- 
low, 131°; four inches below, 121°; six inches below, 
102°. These temperatures are frequent in midsummer. 

The lowest temperature of winter in similar locations 
is often 20° to 26° below zero, and on rare occasions may 
go as low as 32° below, as in February, 1899. When the 
ground is not covered with snow the temperature of the 
earth, for the first inch or two below the surface, when 
radiation is strong, should be almost equal to the air in 
intensity of cold. 

Another feature connected with the temperature of the 
western plains should be borne in mind, as it must affect 
largely the character of the vegetation, namely: Changes 



14 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



of temperature. A difference of 30° to 40° between the 
extremes of night and day temperature is quite common. 
A fall of temperature of 30° in two hours during the 
middle of a storm is frequent. A rise of 30° in three 
hours occasionally occurs. A monthly range of 60° is 
usual. A monthly range of 100° in winter is not un- 
known. A yearly range of 134° is recorded by the XL S. 
Weather Bureau as having occurred in 1899. 

Thus it will be seen that vegetation, to be able to endure ' 
such temperatures and survive, must be of the very 
hardiest kind. 

Such temperatures and changes of temperature are gen- 
erally supposed to be destructive to plant life; but the 
following plants live through them and continue to thrive : 
Pincushion cactus, prickly pear, thistle poppy, Rocky 
Mountain bee plant, spider-flower, clammy weed, buffalo 
pea, loco, turkey bean, leather-root, devil's shoestring, 
hoffmannseggia, carpetweed, mentzelia, golden-aster, west- 
ern goldenrod, hookeria, flaveria, rosinweed (Grindelia) , 
aplopappus, golden senecio, sandhill sunflower, gaillardia, 
dogfennel (Dysodia), engelmannia, wild sage (Artemi- 
sia), gas-plant, wild lettuce, western thistle (Carduus), 
buffalo bur (Solanum), gilia, pentstemon, mountain mint, 
wild gourd, devil's claw, hoary goose-foot, tumble-weed, 
croton, numerous spurges, and many other plants ; though 
these are the most noticeable that bloom or remain in bloom 
in the middle of the day. 

Many of the plants of the plains flourish during the 
season when the weather is not so inclement, and rest or 
lie dormant during the terrific heat of summer as well as 
the cold of winter. Of this kind are all the annuals that 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 15 

ripen their seed in June, and such "biennials" as start 
from seed in the fall and ripen their seed early next sum- 
mer. There are very many examples of these in the crow- 
foot, mustard, pea, evening-primrose, spurge, and goose- 
foot families. 

Many other plants of the same region seek situations 
sheltered from the burning sun, or are quiescent during 
the heat of the day, as wild four-o'clock, fragrant abronia, 
heliotrope, the evening-primroses, gauras, dwarf morning- 
glory, bush morning-glory, crimson poppy-mallow (Cal- 
lirrhoe), scarlet mallow (Malvastrum), day flower, spider- 
wort, etc. 

Other plants, as buffalo-grass, prairie june-grass, wild 
wheat-grass, etc., have passed their season and are lying 
dormant; others are waiting for the cooler fall; as most 
of the composite plants, goosefoots, joint-grasses, spurges 
(including "snow-on-the-mountain" ) , etc. 

The highest temperature in the woodlands of eastern 
Kansas is about 97° to 100°, rarely so high, and the 
lowest temperature in similar situations is about 12° to 
18° below zero, though seldom below zero. Plants less 
hardy than those found on the prairie may endure in the 
woods. 

4.— KAINFALL. 

The total annual rainfall of the State varies from 38 
inches in the eastern part of the State to 15 inches in the 
west, the average being about 27 inches in the central part. 
Lines of equal annual rainfall cross the State nearly north 
and south, and are almost identical with elevation-contour 
lines and nearly coincident with meridional lines. The 
principal part of the year's precipitation falls between the 



16 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



months of April and July, just when most needed by grow- 
ing crops. The following table shows the fall by seasons : 

Western Middle Eastern Average 
One-third. One-third. One-third, for State. 

Winter (Dec, Jan., Feb.).. 1.66 3.02 4.50 3.06 

Spring (Mar., Apr., May).. 5. 50 7.83 10.73 8.02 

Summer (June, July, Aug.) 7.86 10.53 13.10 10.50 

Autumn (Sept., Oct., Nov.) . .3.59 5.68 7.68 5.65 

For the year 18.61 27.06 36.01 27.22 

Growing season (April, May, 

June, July) 10.09 13.72 17.71 13.84 

Thus it will be seen that the State has plenty of rain- 
fall during the growing season for the growth of ordinary 
plants; and, while there is no particular time of day for 
maximum rainfall, unless it should be at night, it very 
rarely happens that there is a drouth during the months 
of April, May, and June. 

On an average, more rain falls in July than in April; 
but it frequently happens that a drouth occurs in July; 
while none of any consequence ever happens in April. 

In attempting to introduce exotic plants of any kind 
for cultivation, it becomes necessary to study the climatic 
conditions, and introduce first those that are best adapted, 
or that live in similar climates in other countries. 

5.— HUMIDITY. 

This is seldom very great. The climate of the plains 
may be termed arid. When, after a three-days south or 
east wind, the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere 
have greatly increased, it requires a rapid fall of tempera- 
ture without an accompanying increase of wind, to cause 
precipitation. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



17 



Evaporation in the central part of the State is greater 
than the rainfall ; in the western part of the State is much, 
greater; and in the eastern part of the State is greater 
on the open prairies and exposed situations, but somewhat 
less in the woodlands. On the whole, in the eastern part 
of the State there is a slight surplus of waters that run 
off in the rivers. 

6.— CLOUDINESS. 

The amount of cloudiness varies from about 40 per cent, 
in the eastern part of the State to about 5 per cent, in the 
western part. This gives a large amount of sunshine, es- 
pecially in the western part of the State, and is an impor- 
tant factor in modifying the character of the vegetation. 

7.— WINDS. 

The prevailing winds of the State are southerly in sum- 
mer, northerly in winter. In summer-time, when the 
weather is fine, the wind begins to rise in the morning, 
increases in intensity to a stiff breeze or a strong wind 
about one to three o'clock; drops to a gentle breeze at 
sunset; then increases to a stiff breeze during the night, 
to fall again toward sunrise. The night winds are less 
than the day winds, except in case of a storm. 

On approach of a storm the south wind may increase 

to a strong wind or even a high wind during the day, fall 

a little toward sunset, and again increase to a high wind 

or even a gale during the night. This may continue for 

two or three days. Storms nearly always approach from 

the west, northwest, or southwest; a hail-storm nearly 

always (though such storms are rare) from the north. 

During the approach of the storm the wind continues to 
—2 



18 



TWENTIETH CENTtJRY CLASSICS 



blow from the south, southeast, or southwest, accompanied 
by rain toward the last. The winds blow toward (or nearly 
toward) a storm center. 

As soon as the storm center has passed, the wind 
changes, usually with a slight calm intermission, to the 
northwest or north, and blows violently for a few hours, 
then settles down to a strong wind for a day or two. 

In unsettled weather, winds change rapidly and are 
uncertain, and are usually accompanied by much rain. - 

8.— EXPOSURE. 

Under such circumstances, with vegetation exposed to 
the full effects of the breezes, the foliage must be of such 
character as will endure severe treatment. Hence we 
find foliage with comparatively few breathing-pores in 
the leaves, and they small and narrow, and much hairiness, 
tending to reduce evaporation from the leaves and stems. 
We also find small leaves predominating or pinnate leaves 
with small leaflets, or pinnatifid leaves with deep divisions 
and narrow lobes. If leaves are large, then they are very 
rough, as the sunflower. Leafless plants are not infre- 
quent, as gas-plant (Lygodesmia), broom-rape, and the 
cacti. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OS 1 KANSAS 19 



CHAPTEE II. 

PLANT SOCIETIES. 

Vegetation in general in the State may be divided into 
eight groups, namely: (1) Water plants; (2) marsh 
plants; (3) woodland vegetation; (4) prairie flowers; 
(5) sandhill flora ; (6) salt-marsh plants ; and (7) plants 
of the plains. 

1.— WATER PLANTS. 

Most noticeable among water plants in the eastern part 
of the State, in fresh-water ponds where the water is from 
two to four feet deep, is the white water-lily (Castalia), 
with beautiful, fragrant, many-petaled white flowers, and 
large floating leaves. The flowers open at six o'clock in the 
morning and close between three and four in the afternoon. 
The plant, although so noticeable, is quite rare even in 
eastern Kansas, and does not occur in the west. 

A more frequent plant in similar situations is the 
common yellow pond-lily (Nelumbo), or sacred bean, 
called by the Indians "yonkopin." In this species the 
leaves mostly stand out of the water and are peltate. In 
the flowers the petals and stamens are in many rows or 
whorls surrounding the obconical ovary and growing from 
Its base (around the point, as the cone is inverted). The 
sepals and petals, which are large and broad in the outside 
rows, gradually grow narrower and change to stamens 
inside. The top of the ovary is broad and flat and contains 
two or three circles of brown oval beans, with a small neck, 



20 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

each bean in a separate receptacle, with its neck and 
shoulders standing out, and when ripe, loose and rattling 
in its receptacle. The roots of this plant are large, fari- 
naceous, and edible. 

A common water plant nearly all over the State, though 
often in marshy places where the water nearly dries out 
in summer, is arrow-head (Sagittaria) . It has very long 
and large leaf-stems, with blades that are arrow-shaped, 
with very long and tapering earlobes. The flowers are 
on tall racemes, in whorls of three, far apart on the stem, 
and with the male and female flowers separate, often on 
separate plants. When on the same plant the upper whorls 
are staminate or male, the lower whorls of flowers are 
fertile or female. The flowers have sepals three, petals 
three, white, all spreading. The stamens are numerous ; 
the ovaries are numerous and crowded into a spherical 
head. 

A somewhat similar plant of shallow water and ditches 
in alluvial districts is alisma or water-plantain. The leaves 
are oblong, ovate, or cordate-ovate, all rising from the root, 
and with leaf-stems merely a narrowed portion of the 
blade. The flowers are like the arrow-head, but smaller 
and perfect ; each flower has male and female organs ; that 
is, they have both stamens and ovaries. 

Very frequent plants, though not very noticeable, in 
water that is deep enough to be permanent, are water-crow- 
foot and water-milfoil. The leaves of these plants are sub- 
divided into very fine divisions. They are much sought 
after as plants for fish-tanks and aquariums. 

Pondweeds are frequent, and not very interesting. They 
have floating ovate or cordate-ovate leaves, with very long 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 21 

petioles or leaf-stems, and lie mostly all in one direction, 
according to how the wind blows. 

Rushes are frequent, though not common. Bulrushes 
are frequent in water-holes in western Kansas. The flowers 
of rushes are liliaceous in structure, but sedge-like in ap- 
pearance. Bulrushes are altogether sedge-like, except that 
the stems are terete, instead of triangular, and the leaves 
are few and unnoticeable. 

In fresh spring streams, on hard land in Morris and 
Russell counties, grows a species of water-cress (lake-cress) 
that is difficult to distinguish from the true water-cress. 
It only grows in ditches of permanent water of the freshest 
kind. 

A plant that may be considered a water plant is the 
water-hemlock, a stout plant of the parsnip family, 3 to 6 
feet high, with large pinnately-compound leaves and hollow 
jointed stems, of which the boys often make "squirt-guns." 

Common in the shallow permanent waters of the Ninne- 
scah, Chikaskia, upper Neosho, Wakarusa, Shunganunga, 
and other streams of southern and eastern Kansas, is to 
be found sometimes vast quantities of jussiea, a water vine 
of the evening-primrose family, with yellow flowers, rising 
out of the water on long calyx tubes, and with four petals 
and eight stamens, like other plants of the same family. 

In shallow rocky streams in Morris county and farther 
east grows a plant of the acanthus family, with an erect 
stem, opposite leaves, and compact clusters of violet, two- 
lipped flowers, on a long peduncle. There is only one pair 
of stamens, hidden under the upper lip. The plant is 
called water-willow, on account of the form of the leaf. 



22 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



2.— MAESH PLANTS. 



The characteristic marsh plants of the North are nearly- 
all absent from the marshes here ; and yet we have a large 
number of plants that make their home largely in wet 
places. They are for the most part inconspicuous and 
uninteresting; and some of them, at least, have been in- 
troduced from the East. 

a. GRASSES AND SEDGES. 

Most noticeable are the grasses and sedges. There are 
so many kinds that differ so little in general appearance 
that an attempt to distinguish between the different kinds 
would be out of place here. It requires technical language. 
It will be sufficient here to point out some of the differences 
between a grass and a sedge, so that the reader of this may 
not make the mistake of calling a sedge "grass." 

Grasses have terete or cylindrical hollow stems, with 
solid joints at certain distances. Leaves are one in a place, 
and alternately on opposite sides of the stem. Each leaf 
starts at a joint; though it seems to start from the plant 
stem at a short distance above the joint. The lower part of 
the leaf, which corresponds to the petiole or leaf -stem in 
other leaves, is called the sheath, and completely and closely 
surrounds the stem of the grass. At the top of the sheath 
the blade is attached at as much of an angle as circum- 
stances will permit; and there is usually more or less of 
a fringe at top of sheath. Indian corn, wheat, and rye, are 
familiar examples of grasses. If it be objected that corn- 
stems or stalks are not terete, but have a groove on one side, 
next to the leaf, so it may be shown that that is true of all 
grasses, only to a less degree. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 23 

Sedges have rush-like (solid) triangular stems, with 
grass-like leaves. The leaves are single and follow around 
the stem, one at each angle. The sheaths of the leaver are 
continuous with the blade, and are not joined to the blade 
at an angle, as in the case of grasses. 

b. TREES AND SHRUBS. 

In this class of marsh plants must be placed the willow 
trees and shrubs that form so conspicuous a feature fring- 
ing our streams and standing in clumps in the marshes 
like sentinel buffaloes guarding the herd drinking at the 
river. 

Willows have their male or pollen-bearing and female 
or seed-producing flowers on separate trees, and depend 
on the wind for pollenization. The staminate or male 
catkins are the only ones desired for a bouquet. The 
pistillate or female flowers are comparatively inconspic- 
uous. 

First is the glaucous willow, or pussy willow, as the girls 
and boys call it, along river-banks, the earliest to bloom 
in the spring, the seed-capsules being nearly full grown 
before the leaves appear. The rather broadish leaves are 
usually furnished with stipules, which, however, fall early. 
The trees grow to a height of 15 or 20 feet. 

Next is a willow similar to this with silky leaves, and 
it is hard to draw a dividing line between the two, as many 
trees have leaves silky when young, and glaucous or smooth 
when old. 

The black willow is a pretty fair-sized tree, usually in 
thickets in low grounds near the river. The tree has 
slender aments, which appear with the leaves. The leaves 
are narrow and furnished with persistent stipules. 



24 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



The peach-leaved willow is common near rivers, and not 
easy to distinguish from other broad-leaved willows. The 
aments appear with the leaves, which have no stipules. 

There is a remarkable form of the river-bed willow grow- 
ing in the sands of the Arkansas river and elsewhere in 
western Kansas, which seems to have its principal stem 
underground a few inches below the surface. It casts up 
small aerial stems two to four feet high all along its 
course. The writer, on one occasion, at Garden City, meas- 
ured one of these stems washed out by a freshet and lodged 
on the piling under the bridge. Its length was 55 feet ; its 
diameter was about two inches, and nearly the same from 
end to end. It had two branches about equal in size. All 
four of the ends were broken. It had numerous one- and 
two-year-old willows attached to it at right angles, all alive. 
Other similar vines, caught against the upper piles, were 
long enough to cross the bridge double, and had one or both 
ends floating in the current below the bridge, showing a 
length perhaps equal to the one in hand. 

A beautiful shrub of the marshes, usually growing just 
in the edge of hard land, is the "lead-plant," miscalled 
"water-locust," though the name "lead-plant" is also a mis- 
nomer. It is about 5 to 8 feet high, in dense clumps, with 
pinnate leaves 6 to 10 inches long, and with about 11 to 17 
or more small oval or elliptic leaflets, with a small point 
at the tip of each. The flowers are very small, in dense 
erect terminal spikes three to six inches long, and single or 
two to four or five spikes in a bunch. Flowers of the pea 
family are unique, having usually five petals consisting of 
the "banner," above; the "wings," at the sides; and the 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 25 

"keel" of the two lower petals joined and enfolding the 
pistil and stamens. This flower (Amorpha fruticosa), 
though of the same family, differs in having only the 
banner, which is a deep dark blue, and enwraps the essen- 
tial organs like a cloak. The fragrance of this plant is 
very pleasant and quite remarkable. When the wind is 
right it may easily be discerned at half a mile or more, 
when approaching it. 

Another very interesting shrub of the water-holes is the 
button-ball bush, usually growing in clumps. It has rather 
large ovate leaves, commonly three in a whorl, sometimes 
two at the beginning of the summer's growth. Its florets 
are very small and packed into solid globose heads which 
terminate the branchlets. It also is fragrant. 

There is an interesting shrub with considerable individ- 
uality, growing on the banks of streams which flow through 
hard-land woods. It is the silky dogwood; grows in 
clumps; and has blue berries when ripe, in broad cymose 
clusters. 

Conspicuous and common in rich soils, near rivers, 
springs, and other permanent fresh water, are the horse- 
tails. These have erect, green, cylindrical, jointed, hollow 
stems, with a whorl or crown of very small, white-margined, 
sharp-pointed, black teeth, surmounting a short sheath 
covering each joint. There are no other leaves. The stems 
are fluted or ridged and have a silicious cuticle. The 
branches are angular and similarly jointed. Owing to the 
uses to which they were formerly put they are commonly 
called scouring rushes. Boys use the larger joints for 
ready-made whistles. 

Joint-weeds are common in low places. They are of 



26 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

many kinds, including water joint- weed, water-pepper, 
tannin plant, heart's-ease, lady's-thumb, and smartweed. 
The leaves of most of these species are comparatively 
broad, with a short petiole attached to and surmounted by 
a bootleg-sort of sheath 'that surrounds the stem of the 
plant like a collar, with its upper edge sometimes plain, 
and again torn a little ; now with a hairy fringe, and then 
with a broad leaf-like expansion quite ornamental. The 
flowers are in rose-colored or white spikes, erect or nod- 
ding, very sweet-scented and abounding in honey. The 
little florets have 5, 6, or 8 stamens, according to the 
species, and each floret has one triangular or lenticular 
seed. The species called bird-grass and dooryard-weed, 
with narrow green leaves, are not water or marsh plants. 

C. HERBS. 

In marshy spots, in summer-time, and in the borders of 
woodlands, in low ground', we may find plenty of starry 
campion, with flowers an inch across, with five white 
fringed petals. The plant is rather slender, about three 
feet high, with four ovate or lanceolate leaves at a joint 
(sometimes two), and a panicle of flowers at the top that 
open in the afternoon. The flowers are very handsome. 

Conspicuous in marshes is the swamp milkweed or silk- 
weed, which grows in clusters of several upright stems, 
three to five feet high, branched at the top, with lance- 
pointed opposite leaves and large umbels of very fragrant 
rose-purple flowers. They are a great attraction to butter- 
flies and beetles. The seed follicles are usually in pairs 
and erect ; the inner bark of the stems and branches has a 
very strong fiber from which Indian hemp is made. 

Growing in sandy soils by the banks of a stream, but by 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



27 



no means so common a plant, is the regular Indian hemp, 
which is also a milkweed, though a different branch of the 
same order — dogbane — in which the flowers are in cymes 
instead of umbels ; styles are united and stamens distinct, 
instead of styles distinct and stamens united ; and the two 
seed follicles are pencil-like, long, slender, taper-pointed, 
and pendulous, like a pair of tongs. 

The cardinal flower and great blue lobelia are great 
favorites on account of their brilliance of color and unique 
form of flower. These are desirable flowers to combine 
with fleabanes and other composite flowers of the fall. 
Growing by the side of streams or near water, they are as 
rare in this State as they are desired. These are all 
autumnal flowers. 

In wet, marshy spots, along the Arkansas river and in 
southwest Kansas, grows a plant of the sunflower family 
called Iva, allied to the ragweed. In our fields of eastern 
Kansas it was supposed to be an eastern plant introduced ; 
but here it is in southwest Kansas found in the marshy 
spots anywhere all over the plains. 

Early in August, 1899, in all the roadside ditches, along 
the lower road between North Topeka and Silver Lake, 
they being more or less filled with water, appeared vast 
quantities of mud plantain, 3 or 4 inches high, with numer- 
ous violet 6-parted flowers, one inch across, somewhat irreg- 
ular, longest up and down, anthers unlike, and each flower 
growing in a green spathe or cloak, like jack-in-the-pul- 
pit. The leaves are shaped like the "spade" emblem on 
playing-cards, except that they have long petioles. How 
happens it that this plant was then in great profusion along 
ten miles of road, and had never been seen or reported in 



28 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

the State before during forty years' residence ? The plant 
has been there all the time. Its season is the last of July 
and month of August. Whenever there is plenty of water 
on the mud during its season it grows and blooms ; other- 
wise its seeds lie dormant, awaiting its opportunity. None 
have appeared so far this year; though there is plenty of 
rain and probably plenty of time. 

3.— WOODLAND VEGETATION. 

a. TREES AND SHRUBS. 

There is very little true forest in Kansas ; at least there 
is no "timber-land/ 7 such as is known in New York, Michi- 
gan, and Wisconsin. The trees, which grow generally near 
streams and on broken hillsides, where they are in a meas- 
ure protected from fire, are of a scrubby kind. They find 
plenty of sky without the necessity of growing tall. 

Nevertheless, the amount of woodland in the State is 
rapidly increasing ; first, from the non-destruction of what 
little timber there is in the State, and protection from fire ; 
second, from the planting of numerous "timber claims/' 
and the subjugation of prairie fires. The time is coming 
when all ravines and broken ground in Kansas, whether 
near a creek or not, should be covered with trees of some 
kind. 

February and March. 

The first blossoms to appear in the early spring are on 
the hazel, in the thickets of eastern Kansas, the male blos- 
soms of which are conspicuous, hanging as catkins from the 
naked branches of the bushes in February and March. 
When the weather is exceptionally fine the hazel blossoms 
open and shed their pollen in February; but ordinarily 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



29 



blossoming takes place in March. The female blossoms 
of the hazel are small, green or reddish green, and incon- 
spicuous, hidden in the axils of the leaf -buds. 

Among the trees to bloom toward the last of March are 
white maple and white and red elm. Only the male blos- 
soms on those trees are at all conspicuous; and were it 
not that the trees were entirely leafless, the blossoms would 
not be noticed. 

White maple trees bloom in March, about the time of 
the vernal equinox. The seeds ripen in May, shortly after 
the leaves have expanded. They should be planted as soon 
as ripe; and do not need frost to make them germinate. 
White maple is a soft maple, sometimes called silver maple 
on account of the whiteness of the under side of the leaf. 
Another of the soft maples that is well known, red maple, 
does not grow in Kansas, except a few trees in the extreme 
northeastern corner of the State. 

The seeds of elm ripen toward the last of April or May, 
before the leaves appear, or just as the leaf-buds are ex- 
panding. Elm, although one of the first trees to become 
green early in the spring, is one of the last trees to leaf out. 
The first greenness is caused by the seeds growing. It 
occasionally happens that, by reason of a cold storm about 
the last of April, the ripe seeds are blown off, making the 
trees bare as in the winter; then in a few days the leaf- 
buds open and they become green a second time. The 
leaves are obliquely ovate, beautifully toothed, and ar- 
ranged in rights and lefts, like a pair of shoes. 

White elm is reasonably well adapted to dry lands, 
though either white or red elm will grow there. The elms 
like plenty of fresh water. Twigs and buds have much the 



30 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

same appearance in each. The seeds are green, soft, flat, 

thin, orbicular or oblong, with a narrow wing all around 

the margin. White-elm seeds have a small notch in the 

margin at the style end of the seed. Seeds of the red elm 

are a little larger and broader than the white, and have 

no notch, but have two small styles. 

Sugar maple grows sparingly in the eastern part of the 

State. 

April. 

Cottonwood trees bloom early in April (6th to 12th), 
and ripen their seeds from the 10th of May to the end 
of the month. Male or staminate blossoms and female or 
pistillate blossoms are on separate trees. The blossoms are 
all in the form of aments or catkins, and grow on wood of 
the second year. The staminate blossoms when fully ex- 
panded are reddish or purple; the pistillate blossoms are 
a dull green. The male aments fall off as soon as blooming 
is ended; the female aments remain on the trees until the 
seeds have nearly all blown away, in May, or early June. 
The seed catkins, resembling necklaces, on the female trees 
are fully expanded and the trees are green, except the ter- 
minal branches, for three weeks before May 1st, when the 
leaves begin to appear. The male trees start their leaves a 
few days earlier. 

From the time the first blossoms appear, in April, until 
the last of the seed has fallen, in May, the male trees can 
be distinguished from the female. Cuttings taken from 
male trees grow into trees that produce only staminate blos- 
soms and never bear seed. Cuttings from male trees only 
should be planted. 

A very beautiful small tree that will be found in bloom, 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



31 



not far from rivers all through southeastern Kansas, as far 
north and west as Pottawatomie county, is the redbud tree. 
Its period of bloom is from the middle to the 25th of April, 
and with its bright crimson flowers is a most entrancing 
sight, and may be discerned for a long distance in the edge 
of a piece of woodland. The blossoms are pea-blossom- 
shaped, but with smaller banners, and grow in loose clusters 
on the branches of two years' growth ; last year's branches 
contain only leaf -buds. The leaves, which appear after the 
flowers have passed, are round-heart-shaped, simple, with 
radiating veins, and so are remarkably different from all 
leaves of trees and plants of the pea family, which are 
nearly always pinnate and feather-veined. 

In April, on steep hillsides, near creeks and rivers, grows 
the bladder-nut, a shrub 6 to 10 feet high, with trifoliolate 
leaves and clusters of small white flowers in the axils. The 
fruit is in the shape of a pendent prismatic sack, composed 
of three peculiarly shaped leaves, about two inches long, 
folded face inward along the midveins and joined together 
bellows-fashion by their margins, then inflated. The seeds 
are very small and globular. 

The pawpaw is a small tree that deserves notice. It 
grows singly ip. communities of pawpaw, in low woods. Its 
leaves are very large and obovate, almost tropical-looking. 
Its blossoms, which open with the leaves in April, are a 
dark purplish brown, almost invisible, and about an inch 
across. The soft, pulpy, luscious fruit, which ripens in 
October, is liked by some almost as well as the banana. 

The common red plum of our woodlands must not be 
omitted in mentioning the early trees. It is especially 
attractive at two seasons of the year : first, in early spring, 
before the leaves appear, when the delicious fragrance of 



32 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



the blossoms may be perceived for a great distance, and 
tempts many a person to cut a bouquet for the button-hole 
or the house. 

There are few trees more beautiful and fragrant than 
the little haw trees, with their wealth of white rosaceous 
blossoms early in the spring when the plum and cherry 
are in bloom. They are frequent and conspicuous objects 
in the woodlands of eastern Kansas. There are several 
species; but they differ so little in habits and general 
appearance that it takes an expert to distinguish them. 
The branches of these trees are the boys' favorite for 
shinny-sticks. The crook at the big end is just right; and 
they are so tough they never break. But it requires a 
strong wrist and a sharp knife to prepare them. 

The wild crab-apple is if anything a more frequent and 
beautiful tree than the haw, not in the general shape of 
the tree but in the size and color of the flowers, which 
are much larger, though in smaller clusters, and rose- 
colored instead of white ; and the fragrance is more pene- 
trating as well as deliciously sweet. There is a variety 
here with narrower foliage, differing noticeably from the 
wild crab-apple of Michigan, but not more than should be 
expected from the difference in climate. The differences 
are hardly marked enough to constitute a separate species. 

The dwarf buckeye is a small tree or large shrub, grow- 
ing in rich soil on the hard, well-drained land along the 
creeks of eastern Kansas. The large terminal panicles of 
purple and yellow flowers in April are very attractive ; and 
the rich foliage is particularly pleasing. Attempts to 
transplant this beautiful shrub to dooryards have been 
but poorly crowned with success. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 33 

May. 

Red mulberry trees are occasional in our woods. They 
bloom early in May. The fruit is now well grown, and will 
be ripe in July. The leaves, which are commonly heart- 
ovate, with saw-tooth edges, are occasionally lobed on one 
or both sides ; and when the stem is a young sprout from 
an old stump, and is rapid-growing, the form of the leaf 
is the most fantastic imaginable. Lobes and serration do 
not then express it. It is positively grotesque. 

Hackberry is an early bloomer, and is frequent in places. 
It makes a beautiful shade tree. It is preferable to the 
elm for the following reasons : It is a smaller tree ; it is 
more symmetrical, growing with a single erect stem and 
horizontal branches; its dark bark is more gracefully 
broken up than that of the elm; its leaves are quite as 
regular and handsome as those of the elm ; it is not affected 
by insect pests; its berries are agreeable. An ob- 
jection to it is that it is occasionally affected by a 
fungus that causes its foliage to grow in green clumps 
early in the spring and late in the fall before the natural 
leaves appear on the trees, and after they have fallen off. 
It also causes green foliage to remain growing on other- 
wise dead trees, as near a brick kiln, where the trees are 
all killed by the fumes of sulphurous gases from the kiln. 
The following trees were noted as being killed in a ravine 
900 feet north of a kiln near Topeka: White elm, white 
ash, box-elder, pignut hickory, hackberry. But the 
fungoid foliage on the hackberry was not killed, and gave 
the tree that bore it a very singular appearance, with 
little clumps of unnatural blue-green foliage all over the 

branches of apparently dead trees, reminding one of the 
—3 



34 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

deciduous trees south of the Ohio river in winter-time, 
when covered with evergreen mistletoe. 

Seven species of oak may be found in bloom early in 
May, namely: Scarlet oak, black-jack oak, water oak, 
post-oak, bur-oak, swamp white-oak, and chestnut oak. 

In the oaks the male blossoms hang in slender aments ; 
the female flowers are very small and inconspicuous, like 
a little scaly stick about the size of half a clove stem. 

How may we know the different oaks? Mainly by the 
form of leaf; sometimes by the form of fruit additional. 

The scarlet oak has leaves in which there are about 
seven triangular, tapering, bristle-tipped lobes, and acorn 
cups nearly top-shaped and not large. It is common, 
mainly on the bottoms. 

The black-jack is a large black-barked tree, not very 
tall; but broad and scraggly. The leaves have two broad 
lobes across the upper third of the leaf and a rounded base. 
The acorn cups are somewhat velvety. It is common on 
the hills. 

The "water oak" often grows upon a high, dry hillside. 
The leaves on some particular trees are about the size and 
shape of a bear-foot track, rounded at the base and broad 
at the tip. Other forms are more pointed at the tip, 
like an Indian moccasin. 

The post-oak leaves have rounded lobes, and are mainly 
in the form of a cross. Its acorn cup is velvety. It 
resembles the black-jack. 

The bur-oak is an inhabitant of low ground; has very 
large leaves with rounded lobes, and large acorns that are 
almost covered by the very large fringe-margined cup. 
The acorn is edible. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 35 

The swamp white-oak has obovate or rhomboidal leaves, 
with wavy edges. The acorns are ovoid, with a neat 
well-formed cup. The acorn is sweet. 

The chestnut oak grows on northern sides of rocky hills, 
in rather thick clumps or patches, making the trees grow 
tall and straight. The leaves are ovate or elliptic, with 
sharp teeth, and feather-veined. The acorns are rather 
small and sweet. 

There is still another oak that does not grow in the 
woods, the scrub oak. This is a dwarf tree or shrub about 
10 feet high, on dry rocky hillsides, in the open field. 
The leaves are similar to those of the chestnut oak; the 
acorns are very sweet. 

Five species of hickory may be seen in the woods of 
eastern Kansas, namely: Pignut, bitternut, mockernut, 
shagbark, and big shell-bark. There are differences in 
these trees that may be learned; but, without specimens 
in hand, descriptions cannot here be made clear without 
the use of technical language, — except that pignuts and 
bitternuts have thin hulls, thin shells, and may be cracked 
in the teeth; edible hickorynuts are angular and have 
thick hulls. 

Pecans grow in southeastern Kansas. Some of them 
have differences that seem to be as great as in the hickories ; 
though whether those differences are permanent or merely 
local, remains to be told. 

Black walnut grows to a great size in eastern Kansas, 
and to a good size in the western part of the State. The 
climate is perfectly adapted to the growth of walnut. In 
suitable flat spots not far from streams walnut may be 
found in groves to the exclusion of other trees. 



36 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

Walnut trees do not bear transplanting. In planting 
a walnut grove it is necessary to plant the seeds four to 
eight times as thick as it is desired to have them grow. A 
better practice is to plant for the surplus trees cottonwood, 
peach, or other cheap and quickly growing tree, in order to 
force the walnut to grow upward in a single stem. When 
the walnut trees have attained sufficient height thq cheap 
trees can be removed for fuel, as required, and the space 
left for the walnut trees. 

Sycamore is occasional near streams, and grows to a 
good size. It makes a handsome park tree, and bears 
transplanting. With its smooth white bark, its numerous 
small pendent button-balls, its large leaves, with the frill- 
like stipules around the throat, its symmetrical mode of 
growth, and its freedom from insects, it is one of the most 
desirable trees for park planting, but it is not desirable to 
have too many, a very few specimens being enough for any 
park. 

Very large sycamore trees are apt to be hollow. One of 
the memories of early boyhood is the gathering of maple 
sap and putting it into immense hollow sycamore logs pre- 
paratory to boiling. Somehow the ideas of sycamore logs 
and maple sugar are intimately associated. 

Wild cherry is frequent on the hard land in the wood. 
It grows into trees 50 feet high. In the month of May 
it fills the woods with its great fragance. Choke-cherry 
is occasional on the broken hillsides. It blooms a little 
earlier than the wild cherry. It is a shrub about 10 to 
15 feet high. 

A very interesting small shrub is the burning-bush, or 
wahoo, which grows along the bluffy banks of water- 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 37 

courses, with its green four-cornered branches, and its 
dark purple flowers growing from wood of the second year. 
Later in the season its 4-lobed capsur^s nod and hang in 
pretty fashion; and in the fall the capsules split open, 
showing the scarlet interior and the crimson seeds inside. 
A tree of this species, 9 feet high, a trunk two inches in 
diameter, a head perfectly symmetrical, nearly globular 
or conical in outline, four feet in diameter, covered ail 
over with its elliptic green leaves and its tens of thousands 
of the dark purple flowers, was a most entrancing sight in 
June. In the fall, when the fruit was ripe and the 
capsules burst, showing the red seeds inside, the tree was 
a no-less-inspiring sight. 

The honey-locust blooms in May, with its staminate and 
pistillate flowers growing on separate trees. Honey-locust 
is frequent in or near our woods, near watercourses. The 
foliage is exceedingly beautiful. Most of the leaves are 
pinnate; though some of the later ones are bipinnate, or 
partly pinnate and partly bipinnate. The blossoms on the 
male trees are very fragrant, and a great attraction for 
a certain kind of flies with a bee-like hum. The female 
trees are ornamented with many large branching thorns, 
as well as large, brown, somewhat-twisted, many-seeded 
pods. The male trees have very few simple thorns, or 
none at all. 

Why does the fruit-bearing tree have thorns and the 
barren tree not ? It must be a survival of a habit acquired 
in eons past, when the honey-locust fruit was edible, and 
wild men or monkeys were plentiful enough to eat all the 
fruit of the honey-locust trees, except of those that were 
so thorny they could not. Was it the fruit of this tree, 



38 



TWENTIETH CEISTTUEY CLASSICS 



seasoned with wild honey, that John ate while in the 
wilderness? Locust plus honey equals honey-locust. 

Coffee-bean is frequent in the wooded bottoms of the 
eastern part of the State, and is occasional as far west as 
Norton, Hays City, Ness City, and Syracuse ; even form- 
ing small groves here and there on the creek bottoms of 
central Kansas. It is a most beautiful tree, not the 
largest, but well formed, with a straight trunk, handsome 
brown bark, and graceful branches. Its leaves are larger 
than those of the honey-locust, nearly two feet long, bi- 
pinnate, with 5 to 9 pinnse or leafleted wings, about 11 or 
13 leaflets to each wing or pinna. The leaflets are oval, 
about 1^ to 2 inches long; sometimes, where there is a 
leaflet instead of a pinna, the leaflet is a little larger. The 
flowers are in terminal racemes, handsome, opening in 
May; the male and female flowers are largely separate, 
usually though not always on separate trees. The pods are 
large, thick, broad, brown, and pendulous; contain about 
five hard, tough-skinned beans each; and hang on the 
trees all winter, falling during the rains of April. The 
wood is soft, strong, and a light-reddish brown. 

The last tree to bloom in the spring is the basswood, 
one of the most graceful of our forest trees, with its 
beautiful obliquely heart-shaped leaves, compact head, and 
its honey-laden perfect flowers. This tree is said to have 
two kinds of leaves; the wing of the seed resembles a 
leaf or a feather; it is not, however, a leaf; the tree has 
only one kind of leaf, and in this the venation and the 
toothed margins are beautiful; the leaves are rights and 
lefts, as in the elm. The tree is easily transplanted ; and 
one or more in every lawn or park is desirable. It is 
a beneficent tree. 



PLANTS AND FLO WEES OF KANSAS 39 

In the edges of woodland, or on steep rocky banks, 
about the last of May or first of June may be seen the 
round-leaved cornel or dogwood, a shrub 8 to 12 feet 
high, with broad cymes of white flowers, and later in the 
season white berries. 

Along streams in hard land may be found another cornel, 
with similar flowers, and blue berries when ripe. 

In the edges of woodland, and waste places in the 
fields, grows the shrub known as smooth sumac. It is a 
late bloomer. The foliage turns to a dark crimson early 
in the fall. Conspicuous on top of the branches may be 
seen dense spikes of crimson acid berries. A small portion 
of these berries put in with currants, apple, etc., in making 
jelly, will greatly improve the appearance and flavor of 
the jelly. Crabapple and grape jelly need none of it. 

b. — VINES. 

The woods of eastern Kansas are well filled with lux- 
uriant vines, chief among which is the five-leaved ampelop- 
sis, or Virginia creeper; though it ought to be called a 
"climber" instead ; as it reaches the summit of the tallest 
trees of the ordinary wood. It belongs to the grape family, 
and climbs by tendrils similarly. But, unlike the grape, 
it adapts itself to circumstances ; and when it cannot wrap 
its tendrils around the object, as a tree or a stone wall, it 
changes the tips of its tendrils into sucking disks, and 
adheres firmly to the bark of the tree or to the wall. The 
leaves of the Virginia creeper are in fives, and turn to a 
crimson red in autumn ; and its broad pendulous panicles 
of blue-black berries are quite ornamental, and if gathered 
remain on the stems for a long time. They are not edible. 

Climbing on the trees by river-banks there may be seen 



40 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

another species of ampelopsis, with simple leaves and ten- 
drils like a grape-vine. It strongly resembles a grape-vine. 
The berries are a dark greenish-blue, and not edible. 

The grape itself is one of the most conspicuous vines 
of the woods. It is able to climb the tallest trees of the 
low woods. The stem of the vine occasionally attains a 
diameter of eight inches. The dark wood of the vine is 
beautiful in some forms of cabinet work. The grape is 
noted for the great fragrance of its blossoms. The fruit 
is an added attraction. 

The climbing ivy is another vine that loves to climb 
tall trees. It clings closely to the bark of trees and 
clothes the naked trunk with pleasant foliage. The leaves 
are three-parted. Like the Virginia creeper, its foliage 
changes to a gorgeous red in the fall. Only this red is more 
of a scarlet; while that of the Virginia creeper is more 
of a crimson. The berries of this species are white. Its 
reputation for being poisonous, like all bad reputations, 
has greatly outrun it. The tall forms, that climb high, 
are not at all dangerous; though the low non-climbing 
forms sometimes appear to poison people by contact, es- 
pecially when a person is hot and perspiring freely. All 
who fear it should avoid it. 

The greenbrier is a frequent vine of low woods. There 
are a number of different species, some exceedingly thorny, 
some scarcely thorny at all. All have beautiful leaves, 
ovate, heart-shaped, or halberd-shaped, with entire mar- 
gins and parallel veins. Each leaf is supplied with a 
pair of tendrils and usually a handsome cyme of green- 
black berries. The greenbrier thorns are not in themselves 
poisonous; but, if one allow the skin to get scratched by 
them, then there is danger of getting poisoned by many 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 41 

of the poisonous plants that under other circumstances 
would be inoffensive. 

Moonseed is a frequent vine in sandy woods. It lias 
very handsome foliage, rather heart-shaped, with about 
five points around the margin of the leaf. It grows to a 
height of 10 to 12 feet. Its male and female blossoms 
are on separate plants. The berries are bluish-black. 

One of the most ornamental vines of the margins of 
woodlands and of shrubby patches is the climbing bitter- 
sweet. It loves to climb bushes. It has ovate leaves, 
smooth and somewhat shiny; its fruit is in terminal 
racemes, coming out and showing above the leaves. The 
capsules are triple ; and, when ripe in the fall, burst open, 
showing the bright orange interior and scarlet seeds, which 
will remain thus all winter or for several years, if gathered 
for ornament. The flowers and fruit resemble closely 
those of the burning-bush, before spoken of in this chapter. 

The berries of these vines, except the grape, are all 
ornamental; and for ornament provide a great variety of 
colors. The berries of the Virginia creeper are a bluish- 
black; of the ampelopsis are a dark greenish-blue; of the 
climbing ivy nearly white; of the greenbrier a greenish- 
black; of the moonseed are a bluish-black; bittersweet 
scarlet; and burning-bush crimson. 

In thickets along creek-banks, by the edge of woodlands, 
grows a vine of the milkweed family that climbs bushes to 
a height of six or eight feet. The vine has opposite cor- 
date leaves, with a deep round sinus at the base and clusters 
of small fragrant flowers in the axils. The fruit consists 
of two erect follicles, as in the milkweeds. It is called 
milkweed vine. 

The wild cucumber is frequent in the rich alluvial soils 



4:2 TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 

of our low woods, and in similar soils in brushy creek bot- 
toms all over the State. It is an annual, starting from the 
seed even before danger of frost is past ; and by means of 
its tendrils quickly covers a bush 10 to 15 feet high with 
its luxuriant and handsome foliage. The young plants can 
readily be transplanted. The seed leaves are large, almost 
like those of a pumpkin. If planted by, or transplanted to, 
a trellis by the house, it is liable to be destroyed by the com- 
mon squash-bug, cucumber-bug, and other hemiptera. The 
foliage has five sharp points, somewhat like a maple or the 
sweet gum. The inflorescence is somewhat poisonous, and 
cannot safely be touched by delicate hands. 

And last, but not least, we come to the crowning glory of 
the season — the climbing prairie rose. Other flowers may 
be more gorgeous and brilliant, others more fragrant, others 
more interesting, other fruits more ornamental ; but there 
is no flower that combines the beauty, the fragrance, the 
sweetness, the homelikeness of the rose, or anything to 
equal it 

C. HERBS. 

In March or early April, on dry, rocky, and wooded 
hillsides adjacent to streams, in the eastern part of the 
State, and not infrequently in the immediate neighborhood 
of a snowbank, may be found the pretty little bloodroot, 

"Wrapped like a soldier in his cloak, 

Upspringing from the damp, dark mold, 
Wakened by southern winds, there blooms 

A snowy flower with heart of gold. 
But they who seek the early flowers 

In woodland nook, by field and flood, 
Forbear to gather these, because 

Their crushed stems stain the hands like blood." 

A single palmately lobed leaf, several inches high, arises 



PLANTS AND FLOWEES OF KANSAS 43 

from a horizontal underground rootstalk, followed by a 
single flower on a scape or stem two or three inches high. 
The flower has eight or ten white petals surrounding about 
20 to 24 yellow stamens. Later the scape and capsule are 
overtopped by the leaves. The juice of the rootstalk is 
orange-red, whence the name. 

In shady spots in early April may be seen numerous 
lily-like spotted leaves, about four to six inches long and 
one to two wide, rising singly from the ground and giving 
promise of a future flower. It is the white adder-tongue, 
a liliaceous plant ; but flowers are seldom seen. 

On open hillsides, especially northern slopes, in grassy 
lands, may be seen plenty of similar leaves, usually two 
at a place, much narrower and unspotted, and each two 
carrying a scape with a nodding, white, lily-like flower, 
more slender than the other, but otherwise similar in ap- 
pearance. This is the Midland adder-tongue, as named 
by Prof. Knerr, of Atchison. Owing to their time of 
blooming, the children call them "Easter lilies." Wherever 
the leaves are single, there is no flower, similarly to the 
white adder-tongue. 

In rich well-drained spots overhanging streams, and 
otherwise near streams, may be seen, four or five inches 
high, the soft, finely divided foliage and nodding racemes 
of little heart-shaped pink flowers of "Dutchman's 
breeches," those little fairy garments that are hung out 
on the lines in early spring, as soon as the snow has dis- 
appeared. Those pale and fragile flowers are the nymph- 
like sisters of the "bleeding heart" of the gardens ; but in 
this case they have the added charm of fragrance. 

A plant somewhat similar in appearance, but lacking 



44 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



much of its delicacy and fragrance, and growing on dryer 
grounds, is the golden corydalis. The flowers are irregular, 
and furnished with a spur half the length of the flower. 
The sharp and bitter taste of the plants, the number of 
parts of the sepals, petals, and stamens, and the 2-valved 
pod, place this plant very close to the mustard family; 
the form of seed seems to link it with the poppies. 

Early in April, in moist shady woods, near streams, 
the children take great delight in the abundance of wild 
"blue" phlox. The color of the flowers ranges from violet, 
through heliotrope and mauve, to a pale lavender. They 
are sometimes white. The old folks call it wild sweet- 
william, on account of its close resemblance to the sweet- 
william of Eastern gardens. It is pleasantly fragrant, and 
so pleasing in appearance that it will form the principal 
flower in the early spring bouquets of most children. 

A noticeable plant in rich woods, growing 10 to 12 inches 
high, with three 3- to 5-parted and toothed leaves, sur- 
mounted by an erect raceme of pink or white mustard-like 
flowers, is Dentaria, or toothwort; sometimes called, on 
account of the sharpness of its root, pepper-root. It is 
rather a coarse, weedy-looking plant; and, were it not so 
early, when handsome flowers are rather scarce, would 
not be noticed. 

The blue hood-leaf violet of the wood is always 
eagerly looked for by the children, and is a great favorite 
with them. The girls will look the flower in the face and 
tell you the story of the cruel stepmother and her daughters, 
the poor old man in the midst ; yes, and show you all the 
people there in the flower. With the boys the flower is the 
emblem of success; the boy who can find a violet that in 



PLANTS AND FLO WEES OF KANSAS 45 

playing "rooster" will snip off the heads of all the other 
boys' "roosters" (violets), when interlocked by the spurs, 
is the boy who is going to succeed. 

The yellow wood-violet comes a little later, and has its 
flowers on the stem of the plant, instead of rising from the 
ground as does the blue violet. It is much rarer than the 
other; but it lights the open woodland with its glow, in- 
spiring the poet's fancy — 

"Thy parent sun who bade thee view 

Pale skies, and chilling moisture sip, 
Has bathed thee in his own bright hue, 

And streaked with jet thy lower lip. 
Yet slight thy form and low thy seat 

And earthward bent thy gentle eye, 
Unapt the passing view to meet 

When loftier flowers are flaunting nigh." 

About the first of May, or a little earlier, may be found 
in certain shaded spots an abundance of "May-apple." 
This rises from an underground stem several years old. 
The first year from the seed the plant is only one or two 
inches high, surmounted by a peltate leaf having only two 
divisions. The next year it is more than twice as high and 
has twice as many divisions to the leaf. The third year 
the leaf -stem reaches full height, 10 to 16 inches, and has 
the full-sized umbrella-like leaf, with eight double divis- 
ions, from which the plant receives the name of umbrella- 
leaf. The fourth year, sometimes the third, according to 
the vigor of its growth, the forked stem appears, bearing 
in its axil the waxy-white, odorous blossoms, shaded now 
by two umbrellas, though each is torn on the side toward 
its mate, as though originally the one umbrella was cut in 
two and the top of the stem also to a depth of three or four 
inches ; then the divided stems had healed up and the half 



46 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

umbrellas had spread around until each made as near a 
whole umbrella as a split umbrella could. The flowers are 
favorites for May-baskets, when the leaves are removed, 
and they are massed in a setting of fern fronds to bring out 
their beauty. The fruit is edible when fully ripe ; though 
one must acquire a taste for it in order to be able to safely 
eat more than one or two. The "apples" ripen nicely by 
gathering them when fully grown, if not quite ripe, and 
packing them in dry meal or bran for a few days. When 
fully ripe they are yellow and soft. Only the seedy inside 
is edible. 

In the margin of the wood, in sheltered spots on the low 
prairie, we find the blue larkspur, a reminder of the flowers 
of the garden, and seemingly an escape. Royally colored 
as they are, the spikes of this flower make a rich color note 
in the spring landscape. 

On the sides of steep, rocky, wooded bluffs, overhanging 
a river, in an apparently inaccessible place, in May, appear 
the nodding blossoms of the wild columbine, with the long 
vertical spurs of the flowers well filled with nectar for the 
insect that can succeed in reaching it. That is not the 
honey-bee, though the poets so imagine. 

"Fair herald of the race of flowers, 

Daintiest of all the springtime knows, 
Fresh with the chill of April showers 

Or breath of late dissolving snows ; 
The secret places of the rock, 

Wherein no human foot may stand, 
The overhanging rock that mocks 

The bravest climber's reaching hand ; 
The inaccessible ravine, 

Shadowed and dewy all day long, 
Where at the bottom, dimly seen, 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 4:7 

The unsunned brook repeats its song ; 
The cliff unsealed by daring feet, 

The glen concealed in twilight gloom — 
These offer thee their safe retreat, 

And look upon thy hidden bloom. 
Thou lov'st to climb the highest rock, 

Seamed by a finger's breadth of soil, 
And thence look brightly down, and mock 

The lover who would seize and spoil. " 

In the damp, rich woods, in June, may be found a hairy 
plant, called waterleaf, 10 to 12 inches high, with leaves 
palmately 5-lobed, and cymose clusters of small pale-blue 
flowers. The flowers are usually of two kinds — one, with 
short stamens and a very long style ; the other with shorter 
style and very prominent stamens. 

In shaded, sandy spots along rivers may be seen a lilia- 
ceous plant, about two feet high, with alternate ovate leaves, 
surmounted by a raceme of white flowers, followed later by 
a few pale-red berries. This is the little Solomon-seal, so 
called because of the stem-scars on the underground root- 
stalk. 

In similar situations may be found the great Solomon- 
seal, a somewhat similar plant, two to four feet high, with- 
out a terminal raceme, but with small clusters of flowers 
in the axils of the leaves, followed by small dark-blue 
berries. This plant grows nearly all over the State, at least 
as far west as Ellis and Garden City. 

On bushy banks of streams may be found the very hand- 
some blue lettuce, a plant three to six feet high, with pani- 
cles of blue flowers that open in the morning and close 
about noon. This also grows as far west as Almena, Ellis, 
and Garden City. 

On moist, steep hillsides, close to a stream, grows Cam- 



48 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



panula, the American bell-flower, a slender, erect, leafy 
plant, three feet high, with star-shaped, campanulate, blue 
flowers, one inch across. The plant, in color and size of 
flower and general appearance, resembles blue lobelia. 

In August, on wooded hillsides, white snake-root, a weedy- 
looking plant, two or three feet high, with bushy top and 
white corymbs of composite flowers, is very conspicuous 
in its great profusion. The masses of clustered blossoms 
fill the autumn woods with beauty. 

The wood-asters will end the season, or at least end this 
census of wood flowers. The wood-asters are many, and of 
many shades of color,, from a deep purple through blue to 
white. The leaves are soft, and always more or less heart- 
shaped; at least they have heart-shaped bases, though 
otherwise the leaves may be rounded, or ovate, or arrow- 
shaped, or lance-shaped. The character of the flower cor- 
responds in all cases with the character of the leaf. This 
is true, in the main, not only of wood-asters but of ail 
plants. 

4.— PRAIRIE FLOWEES. 

May and June are the great flower months in Kansas. 
During the spring months there is no place more beau- 
tiful or more interesting to the passer-by or the botanist 
than the prairies of Kansas. The abundance, beauty, and 
size of many of the flowers cause certain spots to rival 
some of the showy Eastern flower gardens. 

Erom the marsh to the low prairie is but a step. There 
are many plants common to both situations; and many 
plants that grow in wet meadows here may be found grow- 
ing in dryer meadows farther east. Only the most common 
ones peculiar to the region will be mentioned here. 



PLANTS AND FLOWEES OF KANSAS 49 

a. APEIL FLOWEES. 

On dry prairies, high or low, one of the earliest little 
plants to catch the eye with its little raceme of small white 
flowers is the little draba, a winter annual with a pretty 
rosette of small ovate or spatulate leaves on the ground, 
and a starry pubescence on stem, leaf, and pod. 

Along the waterways, in the low grounds, the wild hya- 
cinth catches the April winds. Graceful and with deli- 
cate coloring it has won its way into our gardens. 

The field violet is a favorite of the prairie. Unlike its 
sister of the woodland, it grows singly, not in groups, and 
loves the bright, glad sunshine. How does it differ from the 
wood violet ? By its leaves, which are of the same general 
outline, being all gashed and cut up into ribbons, as 
though done by the fierce winds of the hillsides; by the 
large, bright purple, hairy flowers, as though the plant, 
seeing its end near, was prepared to yield its life to pro- 
duce, — which is almost literally true; for the plant, its 
seed ripe in May, can be seen no more, once the hot weather 
of June is at hand. 

A very similar plant is the bird-foot violet, with similar 
leaves and flowers, and growing, about a month later, in 
similar situations. But this plant appears more like a 
pansy, has smooth petals, varying from a dark purple to a 
pale lilac, or even white, and with the upper petals usually 
darker than the lower. It may occasionally be found in 
bloom a second time in autumn. 

Next we find the field pansy, seeming to choose certain 
spots that have a rich, damp, sandy soil, and having flowers 
that are each one, two, or three colors, or shades of colors, 
between violet and yellow. It has small roundish leaves, 



50 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



on long petioles, ornamented by a pair of very large 
laciniate (deeply gashed) stipules, even larger than the 
leaf. The stems are tall and branched; the flowers nu- 
merous, and the seed-pods conspicuous, when ripe, toward 
the last of May or early in June. 

The trailing verbena is to the children of the prairie 
what "daisies and buttercups'' are to the children of the 
East. It is perennial in life and almost perpetual in habit 
of bloom. It comes early and stays late. Scarcely have 
the last snows of April disappeared when its clusters of 
bright-red tubular flowers may be seen peeping above the 
young grass; and the first snows of fall will sometimes 
find it blooming still. Its fragrant blossoms have wreathed 
many a ringlet-crowned head ; and twined wreaths are even 
now reposing in old school-books, faded and odorless, but 
recalling happy childhood days. 

Prairie peas are quite numerous and abundant; all 
blossom in April and May. Among the first is the common 
"buffalo pea." The blossoms vary on different plants, 
through all shades, from a pale straw-color to a rich crim- 
son. They all change to yellowish in fading. The fruit 
is somewhat edible when young and tender. It is occa- 
sionally used as a substitute for green peas or asparagus. 
It is said by frontiersmen to possess powerful pectoral prop- 
erties, clearing the throat and making the breath flow freer. 
The fruit, when ripe, resembles, in color, shape, and size, 
a shell-bark hickory-nut, but is very light and corky. 

A similar plant, blossoming at the same time, is the 
ground plum. The color of blossom is about the same, with 
nearly the same variations. The habit and general ap- 
pearance of plant and leaf are also much the same, and 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



51 



the plants are very apt to be confounded in the herbarium. 
An intimate acquaintance shows recognizable differences. 
In the latter, the stems, at the base, are smaller, harder 
and darker, and are more prone to cast root at the joints. 
The leaflets are a little more slender, and the pubescence 
(what little there is) is sparser and more closely appressed. 
But the fruit, when ripe, differs greatly. The pods are 
much smaller, harder, have a deep suture on the under 
side, and a hard, sharp, upturned point. 

Toward the last of April, on the dry prairies of middle 
Kansas, growing singly and far apart, may be seen stems 
of yellow indigo, about a foot high and bending over the 
grass with large racemes of coarse-looking yellow flowers, 
usually more or less gnawed by insects. They are some- 
times collected for a bouquet, but are not especially hand- 
some. : < . | 

The very pretty pink sorrel, with its large nodding 
violet-pink blossoms, comes into bloom toward the close of 
April. The scaly bulbs, as well as those of the wild onion, 
are the favorite article of food with the striped prairie 
squirrel. 

A very pretty and early bloomer is the wild-pea vine. 
In some favored, damp places, it grows so as to completely 
cover the ground and grass, and with its bright bluish 
flowers make a handsome bed. 

On the dry prairies there is a sort of wild dandelion with 
long, wavy-edged leaves. The flowers resemble the old- 
fashioned dandelion in many respects, and, like that, close 
in the evening and in damp weather. 

Abundantly, in some spots on the prairie, we find the 
wild onion, with its pretty clusters of pink star-shaped 



52 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



flowers, six inches high. The flowers have the odor of, 
and much resemble, garden pinks, though care and hand- 
ling is necessary, so as not to crush the plants, or the odor 
instantly changes. These have terete hollow leaves. Later, 
a taller kind, twice the height, with white flowers, and flat, 
carinate leaves, appears. The flowers have not the pleasant 
pinky odor of the others ; but the garlicky odor is stronger. 
There is a species intermediate in height between these 
two, with white and pink striped petals, and semi-terete 
leaves, channeled on the upper side. 

These flowers, gathered into a bouquet, are almost ever- 
lasting in form and color, — and have an everlasting smell, 
too. There is a tall species, eighteen inches high, in moist 
places, that has bulbiferous umbels. 

These onions all have reticulated, fibrous bulbs. Cows 
are fond of the tops in spring, to the detriment of the 
butter. The bulbs form a large part of the food of the 
prairie squirrel. The low pink variety is worth cultivating, 
and would make a very pretty border in a flower garden 
early in spring. 

On the hilltops and dry prairies in early spring may be 
seen many Carolina anemones, growing singly, about six 
inches high, from small round tubers. The root-leaves are 
3-parted and each of the divisions 3-cleft. Half-way up 
the stem is a small involucre (large for the size of the 
plant) of three leaves, each 3-parted, and the divisions 
3-cleft, making apparently nine 3-cleft leaves in a whorl. 
The flower at the top has normally about 13 colored sepals, 
the colors being purple, blue, pink, rose-color, or white, 
and various shades of those colors. Altogether it is a 
very pretty flower. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



53 



6. MAY FLOWEES. 

One of the most showy flowers of the prairie is the 
crimson poppy-mallow (Callirrlioe). This is a vine, four 
to eight feet in length, running on the ground, and having 
large, bright crimson, white-centered flowers, that open in 
the morning, remain open all day, and close at sunset or 
earlier, to reopen next day for a time or two. The flowers 
change to a purple in drying. The leaves are rounded, with 
rather deep sinuses ; the flowers are single, one at each leaf 
axil, on peduncles six or eight inches long, raising the flow- 
ers above the grass and slightly above the leaves of the 
plant. The plants bloom from May to July. The root is 
perennial, large, somewhat parsnip-shaped, abounding in 
mucilage, and eaten by Indians. 

Another mallow of damp prairies (a Callirrlioe also) 
has smaller (perennial) roots, weak stems 18 inches high, 
and pink flowers, with beautifully fringed petals. The 
flowers are solitary, in the axils of the upper leaves. The 
leaves are triangular, the lower ones almost entire; a 
little above they are strongly crenate; and the upper 
leaves, still triangular in outline, are three- to seven-parted, 
the segments variously lobed and cleft. Either of these 
is worthy of cultivation, and capable of it. 

About the middle of May the handsome spiderwort comes 
into bloom. It is abundant everywhere, especially on the 
low prairies, and is one of the most noticeable flowers of 
the prairies. The flowers vary, through all shades of pur- 
ple, from a very pale blue to a bright rose-color. The ex- 
tremes are not often found, and pure white ones are rarely 
found, though white ones with pink stamens sometimes 
appear. They are to be found quite double. They are, no 
doubt, capable of much improvement by cultivation. 



54 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



On ground broken by gophers, and on new "breaking," 
we find the elegant little scarlet gaura, ten or twelve inches 
high. Its flowers, when first open, are white, soon change 
to rose-color, and finally to scarlet before fading. It is one 
of the very few pleasantly fragrant prairie flowers. 

A feature in this Western country is the very showy and 
really splendid great-flowered evening-primrose. The 
plant is low and insignificant. The flowers open at a time 
of day when most other flowers are closed for the night, 
and next morning have lost their brilliant color ; otherwise 
they would be admirable. Spots that in the spring were 
all pink and blue and white with anemones and wild 
onions, in May are purple all day with poppy-mallows and 
spiderworts, and yellow all night with evening-primroses. 

In the alluvial lands of Neosho and other southeastern 
counties, occurs the "wild potato vine," a species of trailing 
morning-glory vine from a stout perennial root, called, like 
other roots of the same and other families, "man-of-the- 
earth." The vines have broad cordate leaves and red- 
purple or white flowers that open very early in the morn- 
ing and close after noon. 

On the low prairies, in eastern Kansas, about the last 
week in May, may be found plenty of Pennsylvania 
anemone, a plant with plenty of foliage and numerous 
branches, each terminated by a flower with five broad white 
sepals. The involucres on this plant consist of two leaves 
each, with each leaf 3-parted. 

The' "red-root" or Jersey tea is an abundant shrub in 
dry prairies and rocky situations. If this plant was not a 
favorite in Revolutionary times, its appearance deceives; 
for each of the petals, which rises on a little claw, tries 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



55 



to cover the pistil, and is shaped just like Israel Putnam's 
three-cocked hat of old. 

There is a handsome half -shrubby evening-primrose, 
with numerous yellow flowers, one and one-half inches 
across when fully open, though at first the four petals look 
very crumpled. This crumpling is a beauty in itself, as it 
differs so much from the character of any other flower. 
The stigma of this flower differs from all other evening- 
primroses in being discoid, with four notches. 

On moist prairies there are several species of allionia, 
a sort of wild four-o'clock, about two feet high. The most 
common kind in the eastern part of the State has heart- 
shaped leaves, and crimson flowers that open at four o'clock 
in the afternoon. Several flowers in succession, one each 
day, opens within the same five-pointed, salver-shaped in- 
volucre. Each flower produces one small black, barrel- 
shaped seed. When the seeds are ripe, they stand on the 
broad involucre like so many black inverted goblets on a 
tray. The plants are common in the parks of some of the 
towns and on sandy islands of the rivers. 

The white allionia is frequently met with on sandy prai- 
ries. It has long narrow leaves and slender white flowers. 
Its flowers open in the evening. 

Common on the prairies and valley lands grows the 
prairie June-grass, a grass that ripens in June and reaches 
the height of 18 inches. It is a desirable grass and can 
readily be cultivated from the seed. 

Abundantly in rocky places, in May and June, may 
be seen the tall white larkspur, with its slender wand-like 
stems, about three feet high, and its curious long-spurred 
whitish flowers, with black anthers set in the woolly throat. 



56 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



Its leaves, most of which are basal, are finely divided; 
those of the stem are few and small. 

Common in May and June, in eastern Kansas, on dry 
or slightly damp grassy prairies, may be seen the brilliant 
crimson cymose panicles of the downy phlox, just ap- 
pearing above the grass. !No one who is gathering a bou- 
quet of prairie flowers will pass them by. They are good 
keepers. 

Common in rocky situations on the prairie, rarely in the 
edge of woods, may be found two species of great-flowered 
pentstemon. One has smooth and glaucous leaves, numer- 
ous short branches, each bearing one to several large, 
thimble-shaped, bluish-white flowers; and the other has 
rougher leaves with sharp teeth on the margin and very 
large purplish flowers in panicles similar to the first. 
Each grows about 18 to 24 inches high, with panicles 
fully a foot. They are favorites for decoration purposes 
on Memorial Day, as they are gorgeous in appearance and 
great keepers. They grow from perennial roots. 

On rocky hills, anywhere in eastern Kansas, about the 
close of May, from large, strong, fibrous and starchy per- 
ennial roots, grows the Missouri evening-primrose. The 
stems are about 12 inches long, weak, mostly lying on the 
ground and rising slightly. The leaves are 3 inches long, 
thick, leathery, smooth on the margins, broadly ovate, vary- 
ing to lance-ovate, and covered with a very fine silky cov- 
ering of dense short hairs. The flowers open at 7 in the 
evening, with calyx tubes five or six inches long and yellow 
flowers four or five inches across. The seed capsules are 
on very short stems, one at each leaf, about 2 to 2^ inches 
long, straw-color when ripe, and with four remarkable 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



57 



wings, at the sutures between the valves, an inch in breadth 
and standing out at right angles to the capsule. The 
wings, then, are each double, like two leaves of a book 
folded together, and when dampened a little separate and 
allow a few seeds to escape. They close again when dry. 
On the high prairies of the State yarrow is common. It 
seems to be a native, as it is found common in the remotest 
parts. Its handsome corymbs of white heads, its finely 
divided foliage, and its peculiar agreeable odor, seem to be 
just like the yarrow of our Eastern gardens. Pink yarrow 
is occasional. 

C. JUNE FLOWEES. 

Early in June, in sandy spots, may be found in abun- 
dance the very interesting day-flower, growing on low, 
jointed, grass-like plants, with beautiful deep-blue flowers, 
having two petals only, the third suppressed, a mere rudi- 
ment being just visible. Curiously enough, the three 
stamens opposite the perfect petals are barren, and fur- 
nished with yellow cruciform glands instead of anthers, 
while the three stamens opposite the abortive petal are 
fully developed, and have large purple anthers. The long 
style bends down to meet the incoming insects carrying 
pollen. The flowers are very delicate and short-lived. 

Yellow sorrel is quite pretty and abundant in spots in 
June. This plant has a stem, while its more showy sister, 
the pink sorrel, must be content with a scape from a bulb. 

Common on the prairies of eastern Kansas is what is 
known as "leather-root," a semi-shrubby plant, three feet 
high, with many branches and surmounted in June with 
many racemes of purple pea-blossoms. The upper leaves 
are 3-leafleted, the lower have five, rarely seven leaflets. 



58 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

The leaves and whole plant are covered with minute trans- 
parent and black dots ; the plant has a somewhat resinous 
odor, and the roots are small, yellow, fibrous, tough, and 
exceedingly long. 

On low grassy prairies, in the eastern two-thirds of the 
State, in June and July, may frequently be found little 
clumps of star-grass, with numerous flat or two-winged 
stems, eight inches high, having at top a small cluster of 
white rarely blue 6-parted flowers, the breadth of, the 
thumbnail, usually blooming about one a day from each 
cluster. 

On the prairies of middle and western Kansas, and the 
rocky hills of eastern Kansas, appears the very interesting 
sensitive brier. This has weak stems or vines, two to three 
feet long, leaning on the grass or on the ground. The 
stems, petioles, peduncles, and pods are well covered with 
curved prickles. The leaves are bipinnate, with about six 
pairs of pinnae. The leaflets are very small. When the 
plant is touched, the leaflets close together; sometimes 
the pinnae also partly close. The blossoms are very small 
and numerous, packed closely into a compact globular head. 
The petals are so small they are unnoticed; the stamens 
are longer, pink, and stand out in all directions from the 
head like the hairs on a bottle-brush. But the flowers, 
aside from their thorns, have a most sweet and delicate 
odor. The pods are three inches long and have four valves. 

On the dry prairies of eastern Kansas the large white 
indigo (Baptisia) is frequently seen. It grows in stems 
one or two from a perennial root, is about four feet high, 
and commonly has a nodding terminal raceme nearly 
eighteen inches in length with many large white flowers 
standing upon the leaning stem. The foliage is trifoliate 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



59 



and a handsome bluish-green color; the flowers are too 
large and coarse to be handsome, except at a distance. 

d. SUMMER FLOWERS. 

On ground that is partly broken, occasionally may be 
found an abundance of wild lettuce, growing tall and 
straight. The small flowers are in large panicles, and 
open at 8 o'clock in great profusion and close about 11, 
thus showing no flowers for most of the day. The colors 
of the flowers on the different species are straw-color, yel- 
low, orange, salmon, and scarlet. 

In buffalo-wallows, and other water-holes and low spots 
on the high prairies, grows an abundance of showy coreop- 
sis. This is really a marsh plant, though it grows on the 
high prairie; for it is to be found only where the water 
stands a portion of the time. The plant is about 3 feet 
high, with pinnately divided leaves and about eight yellow 
rays with brown bases, similar to the garden coreopsis of 
the East and probably the ancestor of it. It is handsomer 
than many garden plants. 

Common on the prairies, in the middle of July, may be 
seen the prairie-clovers. There are two species — the crim- 
son and the white. These prairie-clovers stand about two 
and one-half feet high, quite erect, and sometimes branched 
a little at the top. Each branch is terminated by a compact 
spike, one to two and one-half inches long, terminating the 
main stem and each of the few branches. The earliest 
flowers open in a circle at the base of the spike; then the 
inflorescence gradually works upward. There are no regu- 
lar petals, as in flowers of the pea family usually; but 
the odd stamen at the top is converted into a cordate 
banner, and four of the nine stamens below are converted 



60 TWENTIETH CENTUKY CLASSICS 

into oblique oblong petals, leaving only five stamens. The 
white prairie-clover has five to seven small leaflets, and the 
crimson has the same number of very small, almost minute, 
leaflets which readily fall off in drying. 

In clumps scattered here and there over the dry prairies, 
the orange-red butterfly-weed, a low plant of the milkweed 
family, gleams amid the grasses as the banquet table of 
the butterfly. 

On the outskirts of the low prairie, close to the timber, 
in the very eastern part of the State, may be seen the wild 
lily, rivaling in color the tiger-lily of the gardens, its 
rich spotted petals showing where the tall meadow-grasses 
almost hide it. 

On the moist prairies of central and eastern Kansas, in 
July and August, grows a form of salvia, with erect stems, 
four or five feet high, and a brilliant raceme of deep-blue 
flowers. This is a plant that ought to be called wild sage, 
but is not. It is one of the representatives of the sage or 
salvia family, that grows on the prairies. The flowers are 
typical salvia flowers, with two lips, and the two stamens 
and pistil ascending high under the upper lip and par- 
tially concealed there. The plant is rather strong-scented. 
White flowers are occasionally found. 

On dry prairies of central and eastern Kansas grows 
Euellia, a little plant about two feet high, with hairy ovate 
leaves and irregular tubular flowers, resembling somewhat 
the petunia. The flowers are reddish, open early in the 
morning and drop off in the middle of the afternoon. 

In July and August, on dry prairies and those mod- 
erately low, numerous plants of Cassia, or sensitive pea, 
may be seen. It is a plant about two feet high or* more, 
with pinnate leaves, yellow, single, regular flowers, and 



PLANTS AND FLO WEES OF KANSAS 61 

five perfect stamens with black anthers. The leaves, which 
have each about 20 to 30 pairs of leaflets, are sensitive to 
the touch, but do not close immediately; though they do 
in a short time. The leaves revive and spread when the 
stem is placed in a vase of water. 

On the bottom lands of eastern Kansas may be found in 
abundance the prairie acacia, a plant of the sensitive-pea 
kind. It stands erect, about three feet high, with numerous 
bipinnate leaves and exceedingly small leaflets. The leaves 
do not close immediately upon being touched, but close in a 
very short time, when the plant is cut and put into a bou- 
quet in lieu of fern fronds. However, when allowed to 
rest in a vase of water they open again and are beautiful, 
with their very fine foliage. The flowers are white and 
similar to those of the sensitive brier, to which the plant is 
closely allied. The pods are short, brown, curved, in a 
compact cluster, and with 3 or 4 beans in a pod. 

6. AUTUMN FLOWERS. 

Everywhere on the prairies grow the many species of 
goldenrod, with very rich, odorous golden plumes nodding 
in the breezes. 

Common on the prairies, both high and low, from black, 
fibrous, globular, perennial tubers, grow a number of dif- 
ferent species of blazing-star and button-snakeroot, as some 
of the species are called. The plants are from 18 inches 
to five feet high, with numerous linear or spatulate, rigid, 
dotted leaves, and conical, top-shaped, cylindrical, hemi- 
spheric, or globular heads, arranged along the upper part 
of the stem either singly, at each leaf-axil, or in a compact 
spike terminating the stem. The heads are rayless. The 
flowers are crimson, purple, or white. The white pappus 



62 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

is mostly plumose. Some of the species are called gay- 
feather. 

A weedy-looking series of plants of eastern Kansas is 
that called boneset and thoroughwort. They are 3 feet high 
or more, have opposite leaves and panicles of very many 
small rayless heads. The flowers are white or purple. 
These weeds are conspicuous features in the open woods 
or on the low prairies. 

A showy flower on the eastern prairies in the fall of the 
year is the many-flowered aster, a plant reaching a height 
of about a foot from the ground, with many branches and 
branchlets well covered with very many small white aster 
heads, that remain in bloom for several weeks. 

On gumbo lands all over central Kansas grows the 
annual sunflower, reaching, in alluvial soils, sometimes, a 
height of 15 feet, and usually growing to the height of six 
to eight feet, with numerous branches, and the regular 
sunflower head terminating each branch. These sunflowers 
are the golden glory of the State, one of the most conspic- 
uous features that reach the eye of the traveler in passing 
through the State. 

On the prairies of eastern Kansas, in the fall of the 
year are seen, here and there, a single fower, or a small 
clump, of the beautiful blue gentian, the crowning wonder 
of the prairie's beauty, to whom the lines of Bryant will 
apply: 

" Thou waitest late and com'st alone, 

When woods are bare and birds are flown, 
And frosts and shortening days portend 

The aged year is near his end. 
Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 

Look through its fringes to the sky, 
Blue— blue, as if the sky let fall 
A flower from its cerulean wall." 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 63 

5.— SAND-HILL VEGETATION. 

The vegetation of the sand-hills is such as can endure 
considerable extremes of heat and cold, strong winds, 
evaporation, and beating with sand; but does not neces- 
sarily have to endure considerable drouth. The sand-hills 
are nearly always supplied with some moisture and never 
overburdened with it; so that plants growing here find 
themselves in a more uniform habitat than under almost 
any other existence. 

<Z. SPRING BLOOMERS. 

Conspicuous in such locations is to be seen the sand- 
plum. This is a shrub from one and one-half to eight feet 
high, tough, gnarly, and with slender leaves, and fruit 
that rivals in size and flavor the common wild red plum 
of the East. The fruit varies greatly. The plums are of 
all sizes, from the size of the egg of a prairie-chicken down 
to that of a large bean, and the colors vary from yellow, 
through all shades of orange to nearly a bright red and even 
a purple or bluish. The pits are smooth or furry, nearly 
globular or flattish, and with or without a distinct crease 
running down one edge of the pit. The fruit varies from 
sour to a delicious sweet; and it often happens that a 
very desirable variety may be found in abundance on cer- 
tain bushes, while other bushes, near by and growing in 
precisely similar situations, bear only undesirable fruit. 
The fruit is almost entirely free from the attacks 
of fungi or insects. It is decidedly the hardiest 
of all our plums, and by careful selection varie- 
ties ought to be raised under cultivation that would 
be desirable. The raising of these plums, under culti- 
vation, in a soil and climate foreign to their natural 



64 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



habitat, may not be attended with success; but that is a 
matter for the future to determine. The skin of the fruit 
is very thick, which, undoubtedly, accounts for its im 
munity against curculio and other insects, and protects it 
from fungi. 

Another plant, that is quite conspicuous on sandy wastes 
and rocky hillsides, is the narrow-leaved yucca, or Spanish 
dagger, as it is called. The stem of this plant is about three 
inches thick and no more than four inches high, and is 
covered with a dense growth of leaves, about 18 inches in 
length by two-thirds of an inch in breadth, standing 
straight out from the plant in all directions. Each plant 
thus makes a conspicuous object that may be seen for miles. 
Its numerous long, narrow evergreen leaves are charm- 
ing in the winter when everything else has turned brown. 
The leaves are frequently used by hunters as cords to 
hang up meat. The roots are about two inches in thick- 
ness and very long, extending underground from 30 to 
100 feet. They are believed to have burst rocks asunder by 
constant growing pressure. The root of this plant is 
called "soap-root." 

A soap manufactory was established some fifteen years 
ago in Wichita for the purpose of making a valuable toilet 
soap of the roots of this plant. The material was obtained 
partly from western Kansas, but in greater quantities from 
northern Texas. 

The yucca blooms in May and June. In May a panicle 
rapidly shoots up to a height of three feet, and bears 
numerous cup-shaped flowers two inches in diameter, hav- 
ing 6 creamy-white and leathery sepals, with 6 spreading 
stamens and a stout 3-parted pistil, followed by a 3-sided 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 65 

green capsule 3 inches long and 1-| in diameter, containing 
3 double cells or carpels, each cell containing about 50 thin 
flat seeds, black when ripe, and packed as closely as possi- 
ble. Fertilization of the flowers is effected by a special 
insect called the yucca moth, which stings the soft young 
capsule and deposits eggs. The soft growing seeds form 
the food of the resulting larva?. 

Two species of pentstemon, twelve to eighteen inches, 
are found in very dry sand-hills, both with very glaucous, 
waxy-looking, entire leaves, one with handsome white or 
pinkish blossoms, the other with large, beautiful blue 
blossoms. 

Two other plants that are very conspicuous in the sand- 
hills and other dry hillsides, are the common loco weeds. 

One is the woolly loco, forming a large clump of pinnate 
leaves, like a pea-plant, only having more leaflets to each 
leaf. The numerous stems of this plant are about two 
inches high, but the leaves reach up into a dense cluster, 
8 to 14 inches. The stem and leaves are covered with a 
dense woolly pubescence. It blooms in May, with some- 
what inconspicuous, yellow clusters of flowers. 

The other species of loco that is most conspicuous is 
called Lambert's loco weed. It has stems about 8 or 10 
inches high, with slender, slightly woolly, leaves; having, 
like the other, very many small leaflets, and often grow- 
ing in dense tracts on the sandy hillsides. When in bloom, 
from the 1st to the 10th of May, ^rith its bright, crimson 
clusters of flowers, it changes a sandy hillside into an 
immense floral mound. 

Both of these plants are said to be poisonous to stock. 
Ordinarily, cattle and horses do not eat the plants; but, 
—5 



66 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



perhaps, when driven to it by scarcity of other food, they 
do eat them. The stories that have been told relative to 
the wonderful inebriating effects of these plants upon stock 
need to be carefully weighed and properly considered. 
The reputation that the plants have for making cattle and 
horses "crazy" may be far beyond the just deserts of the 
plants. Perhaps lack of water, after all, may be the prin- 
cipal cause. 

b. SUMMER BLOOMERS. 

A conspicuous plant that is very common in the sand- 
hills, in summer-time, is the hairy golden-aster. This 
plant grows to be about 2 feet high, with branching stems, 
small ovate, hairy leaves, and conspicuous, golden-rayed 
heads, resembling small sunflowers, except that the center 
is yellow instead of brown. 

A common plant of the sand-hills of western Kansas 
is the sweet-scented abronia. It grows in low clumps 
on the ground, and opens its large, trumpet-like blossoms 
just at sunset. The color of the flowers is a reddish 
purple, not only very showy, but very fragrant. 

A plant of the sandy ranges, that blooms late in sum- 
mer, is the graceful little frelichia. It is a tall, slen- 
der, jointed plant, 2 to 3 feet high, very woolly on the 
stem, and with few branches and small hairy leaves and 
small pink flowers that are followed later by cottony seeds, 
in which the cotton remains exposed for a long time, giving 
the plants white heads. 

Mountain mint is a common plant of the sand-hills. 
It is about 2^ feet high, with handsome aromatic heads 
of pink flowers. 

A plant of sandy plowed fields, rather than of the sand- 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



67 



hills proper, is the sand-hill sunflower. This differs from 
the common annual sunflower, which it most nearly re- 
sembles, in having narrow leaves, in being less erect and 
less rough, and in growing to less than half the height of 
the common sunflower. 

Another plant (a grass) of similar locations is sandbur. 
This, when cut quite young and tender, makes very good 
hay; cattle and horses eat it freely. When the burs are 
allowed to harden before cutting, it is cruel to feed it to 
stock. 

A conspicuous plant of the cultivated sand-hills is the 
sand-hill tumble-weed. It has very small leaves, and seeds 
like a winged wheel. Like the Russian thistle, it requires 
cultivation to bring it to' perfection. Commonly on the 
prairie the plants rise to be about four to six inches high, 
with one or two small branches, one or two inches long, 
and bearing in all perhaps half a dozen seeds. In the 
sand-hills near the river, where the land is cultivated^ the 
writer has collected them over five feet across and about 
2J feet high, with hundreds of thousands of seeds. Few 
grow. 

In dry, sandy soils in southwestern Kansas, may be 
found Eiddellia, a perennial composite about two feet 
high with numerous brown heads and short three-toothed 
rays about four to each head. The plant is a very hand- 
some one as it is seen growing. 

In the fall of the year, on the sand-hills of the southwest, 

; grows a delicate though somewhat hairy little plant about 

j 18 inches high, with an erect stem, lance-ovate leaves, and 

brown heads, with 8 or 10 rose-purple rays, broadened at 

the tip into three long points. This is Neptune's trident 



68 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

in a sea of grass. Its classical name is Polypteris Hook- 
eriana. 

In the low sand-hills of the southwest, in August, may 
be seen a small plant about a foot high, with weak hairy 
stems and hairy ovate leaves having a very large trumpet- 
shaped white flower in the axil of each leaf. This is the 
fragrant heliotrope. It opens its flowers a little before 
sunset each evening. 

6.— SALT-MARSH VEGETATION. 

There are numerous salt-marshes in the State that con- 
tain a vegetation peculiar to such localities, including a 
few plants that are known to exist along the Atlantic 
coast, and have not been found anywhere else in the 
interior of the country. 

Conspicuous among the plants growing in salt-marshes, 
is the common salt-grass, a sub-species of Uniola. A grass 
growing in dense mats on the ground, about 6 inches high, 
ordinarily, and with seed stems reaching about 8 inches 
high. It is very common in the salt-marshes along the 
Saline river, also about Hutchinson and on the bottoms 
of the Cimarron and other streams in the salt regions of 
southern Kansas. Wherever it grows beside a naked patch 
of earth, as a ditch recently dug, it sends out numerous 
runners, that reach five or six feet in length and soon cover 
the ground. 

In the saline bottoms near Salina and Abilene, near 
Hutchinson, near Arkalon, and dozens of other places, 
grows a perennial form of pigeon-grass, or wild Hungarian 
grass. It forms a fairly good sod. 

Another grass that is very common in the salt-marshes, 






PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



69 



is what is known as "fine-top," a grass growing in dense 
mats on the ground, commonly about 6 inches high, and 
with much-branched stems, standing erect, about 2^ to 3 
feet high, the branches and sub-branches being very nu- 
merous and slender. 

A common weed in such localities is a species of atriplex, 
with small, very fleshy leaves, about two-thirds of an inch 
in length and one-fourth of that in thickness. 

Other plants of the same family that are found almost 
entirely in salt-marshes are glasswort, blite, and saltwort, 
like the atriplex spoken of. These plants all have fleshy 
leaves, and seed similar to the pigweed. 

A variety of saltwort, that has lately been introduced 
from the north, is what is known as "Russian thistle." 
This is a plant that is confined almost entirely to saline 
lands, and seldom grows to maturity on any other soil; 
or, if found growing on lands that are slightly saline, 
disappears from such locations after a few years. It is 
not to be dreaded in this State, as it does not do well on 
lands that are not saline. 

A plant of the same order is a sort of goosefoot, some 
species of which are called "pigweeds." The plant grows 
to be about two feet high, with numerous broad, fleshy 
leaves, and in dry weather it is always covered with an 
inflorescence of salt. 

None of these plants are eaten by cattle or horses, except 
that the fine-top grass is sometimes eaten sparingly. 

On low, dry, saline prairies may be seen a gentian-like 
plant, with very smooth glaucous ovate leaves, with entire 
margins and handsome purple flowers that open their 
petals wide. The flowers are two to three inches across, 



70 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



with several in bloom at the same time on each plant, 
making a most beautiful object. This plant is called 
Eustoma. 

Along the margins of alkaline and saline marshes may 
be found clumps of flaveria, a narrow-leaved composite 
plant, about two and one-half feet high, with very many 
small triangular heads aggregated into a compact corymb 
on top. Each head is furnished with a single small yellow 
rays; the rays are all turned outward from a common 
center. Each little head has five florets, one of the ray 
and four of the disk. 

7.— PLANTS OF THE PLAINS. 

a. ADAPTATIONS. 

It will be seen from the rainfall table on page 16 that 
plants, to live and be able to propagate on the dry western 
plains, must be either of two kinds — a short-lived annual 
or a long-rooted perennial. May and June, being the 
rainy season, is the most charming time of the year on 
"the plains," covered as the earth is with many large and 
beautiful flowers at all hours of the day and night. 

Notable among the long-rooted perennials are the fol- 
lowing : 

Buffalo-grass, otherwise called curly mesquite, summer 
mesquite, which, while it stands only three to five inches 
high, has roots that reach down five to ten feet from the 
surface ; and in digging new wells on the prairie, by care- 
ful watching, have been traced to a depth of fifteen feet 
from the surface; thus reaching down to that stratum of 
earth seldom affected by summer heat.* 

* Transactions Kans. Acad. Sci., VII, 1880, p. 53. 



PLANTS ANT> FLOWEKS OF KANSAS 



71 



"In a small paddock there had been growing for some 
years past a perfect sward of buffalo-grass about a foot 
thick ; but cattle and horses would only eat it during the 
winter, after the frost had affected it. In sinking a well 
to provide water for horses, the buffalo-grass was traced 
ten feet down, through the red soil about five feet, and 
then into a stratum of gravel and sand about five feet, 
strong straight roots with great masses of feeding root- 
lets." f 

This grass has its male and female flowers on separate 
plants. On the plains the plant usually propagates by 
runners ; hence we find patches all staminate or all pistil- 
late, as the case may be. The staminate blossoms with 
their orange anthers are quite noticeable, as they 
stand four or five inches high; but the pistil- 
late blossoms are hidden under the grass about one 
to two inches high, and must be sought attentively 
to be found, and may then be found in abundance. The 
seeds of this grass are gathered and cached by prairie 
squirrels and wood-rats. One wood-rat's nest, found in 
the winter of 1877, contained nearly half a bushel of seeds. 

Leather-root, a perennial having upright annual stems 
2J to 3 feet high, with many branches and sub-branches, 
3- to 5-leafleted, glandular-dotted leaves, and racemes three 
inches long, of handsome purple-blue pea-blossom flowers. 
This has long slender roots reaching down to a depth 
of 15 to 20 feet, or greater. 

Shoestring, a shrubby little plant of the sand-hills and 
sandy prairies, two to three feet high, with gray or hoary 
pinnate leaves, having 15 to 25 small oblong leaflets on 

tlndian Agriculturist, Sept. 1893. 



72 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



each leaf, and, terminating each, of several of the upper 
branches, one to five or six spikes, two to four inches long, 
of very small pea-blossom-like and very fragrant flowers, 
with only one petal — the banner — which is sky-blue and 
enwraps the blossom like a cloak. Just below the surface 
of the ground is a crown, from which arises sometimes 
five to eight or more stems, forming a cluster of small 
shrubs, at other times only one stem, which stands erect 
like a little tree, and when growing on a rocky hillside, 
where protected from fire, is hardy enough at the base 
not to be winter-killed quite down to the ground always. 
Dropping down from the crown are several exceedingly 
tough roots, no larger than a lead pencil, going straight 
down toward perpetual moisture. These roots have been 
traced down, in digging wells, to a depth of 26 feet;* 
it is probable that that depth is frequently exceeded. Sev- 
eral divisions of the root, before reaching that depth, re- 
duced the thickness to veritable strings; so that at last 
they were merely fine whitish threads. 

Bush morning-glory, or "man-of-the-earth," a semi- 
erect vine with long narrow leaves and reddish flowers, 
with a tube four to six inches long and a corolla three 
inches across, has a very large fusiform root, four to ten 
inches in diameter, and three to six feet in depth, that 
sometimes seems to get larger as the* depth increases. The 
termination of some of those very large roots has never 
been reached ; so the depth cannot be stated. 

Wild gourd, also called "man-of-the-earth," is another 
very large root, whose depth cannot be stated. 

Narrow-leaved yucca, a plant of the rocky hillsides and 

* Transactions Kan. Acad. ScL, VII, p. 56. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



73 



sandy prairies, lias roots several inches thick, and 25 to 50 
feet long, or more than that, and ready to throw up a new 
plant wherever the root comes near the surface. This 
apparent root is often an underground stem, with a regu- 
lar subterranean bud at the tip. The extreme length of 
these roots has never been determined. 

The scarlet mallow, a pretty little- malvaceous plant, 
four inches high, with numerous salmon-colored flowers, 
has roots and underground stems that may be followed 
in embankments for 20 to 40 feet, from which arise occa- 
sionally, though sometimes at distances of 15 to 25 feet, 
flowering stems, showing where the creeping stems have 
come near the air and possibly become injured. 

Many other plants with extraordinarily long roots might 
be named ; but possibly it is more accurate to regard such 
roots on prairie plants as ordinary. 

Alfalfa, a newly introduced plant on our western prai- 
ries, is known to have roots 15 feet in depth at three years 
of age, thus giving it a foothold on our prairies that red 
clover cannot hope to attain. 

It is characteristic of perennial plants of the plains 
that they have very long roots, reaching well down into 
the earth. They are also supplied with numerous buds at 
or near the crown, so that in case of the destruction of the 
overground stems by fire or otherwise, the abundant plant 
food that is stored in the long and large roots enables 
the plants to make a rapid growth and mature their seeds 
before the season of annual fires. 

Long roots, however, are not confined to plants of the 
plains. The grape, for instance, it is well known, when 
old, may have roots 30 to 60 feet in length; though in this 



74 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



case there is no necessity for the roots to go straight down, 
as the plant grows where moisture is always plenty. 

b. SEQUENCE OF FLOWERS. 

March. 

Two little plants of the western prairies that open their 
blossoms in March are, when fully grown, about three 
inches high, but when they come into bloom are about 
one and one-half inches high, or even less. They belong 
to the parsnip family, and have no common English name. 
They have small umbels of greenish-yellow flowers, and 
when ripe one of them has seeds about the size and shape 
of a parsnip seed, thin and flat, with two wings on opposite 
edges, though often the seeds are greatly inflated by reason 
of the presence of a small beetle in each. The other has 
seeds similar, except that each seed has about four or five 
vertical wings arranged equidistant around the outer side 
of the seed. It should be remembered that the seeds of all 
plants of the parsnip family are in pairs, and face to face. 
Seeds have various shapes, such as wafer-shaped, saucer- 
shaped, cup-shaped, terete, cylindrical, prismatic, semi- 
globular, and globular. 

April. 

On dry open prairies in April there is an attractive 
little plant about two or three inches high, with a pretty 
rosette of oblong or spatulate leaves on the ground, from 
which several small stems arise, each bearing at its summit 
a smaller rosette of similar leaves, from which again 
arise a number of very small pedicels, not exceeding 
one inch in length, each bearing at its summit a very small 
white 5-pointed flower. 



PLANTS AND FLOWEES OF KANSAS 



75 



Very pretty and quite abundant in dry places, though 
very ill-scented, is the long-flowered puccoon or stoneseed. 
The flowers are numerous on a plant 10 inches high, are 
yellow, tubular, and open into five partly crimped or 
scalloped segments. Though often called honeysuckle, the 
scent forbids the name. There are four naked white seeds 
resembling white marsh shells. 

On the dry prairies of western Kansas, from a deep 
perennial root, appears a little hairy composite plant about 
two inches high, with linear leaves, two inches long, all 
in a bunch, and in the center a head with purple or white 
rays, making a flower about two inches across, entirely 
disproportionate to the size of the plant; and were it* not 
for the little bunch of leaves, the plant would be apparently 
all flower. The name of the plant is Townsendia, and it 
blooms as early as April and May, making it one of the 
earliest composites to bloom. 

May. 

In the sand-hills of the southwest, in May, the white- 
stemmed evening-primrose comes into bloom. It has hand- 
some white flowers with cordate petals, opening in the 
morning and turning rose-color. The stem is upright, 
branched ; the leaves are pinnatifid. 

On dry hills and well-drained ground may be seen in 
abundance the silky sophora, one foot high, with its beau- 
tiful, whitish-green, silky, pinnate leaves, terminal racemes 
of yellow pea-blossoms and handsome lead-colored calyxes. 
The pods, when grown, are constricted between the seeds, 
making a sort of necklace of each pod. 

In wet buffalo-wallows, and other wettish holes, there is 
a biennial species of evening-primrose growing low to the 



76 



TWENTIETH CENTUKY CLASSICS 



earth, with many runcinate-pinnatisect leaves, about like 
those of the dandelion, and with rhomb-shaped yellow 
flowers, having a calyx tube three inches in length. 
When the seed is ripe and the leaves have fallen, the very 
short stem is entirely covered with the sessile, four-cornered 
obpyramidal capsules, as close as they can be crowded to- 
gether. It much resembles, in size, shape, and color, an 
old overgrown pine cone. 

One of the earliest composite plants to unfold its blos- 
soms in the spring is the golden senecio. It grows about 
wet places, one to two feet high, with many bright yellow 
heads. 

On the dry plains of western Kansas may be seen occa- 
sionally in certain spots, numerous plants of Evolvulus, 
a species of dwarf morning-glory, 3 to 6 inches high, with 
silky ovate leaves, one-half inch long or more, and a very 
small trumpet-shaped reddish-purple flower in the axil of 
each leaf. These flowers, like other flowers of the morning- 
glory family, open very early in the morning and close 
about noon. 

In the rich, -alluvial river bottoms all over western 
Kansas grows the common barnyard-grass, just as though 
it had lived there always. It seems to be perfectly at 
home, but grows rank in rich places, reaching a height of 
six or eight feet, with spikes six or eight inches in length. 

Along the river and watercourses there is a species of 
blue-grass (Poa compressa), with flat stems, a much bluer 
grass than the Kentucky blue-grass. It is quite abundant, 
and blooms about the middle of May. It is a valuable and 
desirable grass, makes a nice sod, and is growing more 
plentiful each year. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



77 



Pentstemons are frequent and of several different kinds, 
mostly to be found on the dry grounds. There is a hand- 
some species of white pentstemon growing abundantly on 
dry hillsides. It has waxy-looking leaves and spikes of 
white, rarely pink, flowers, 15 inches high. 

About the 20th of May, on dry hillsides, may be seen, 
in abundance, a tuberous dandelion, with brilliant yellow, 
dandelion-like flowers, two inches across, which are ren- 
dered more showy by contrast with the black anthers. The 
flower is single, on a solid, striate, one-bracted scape, rising 
from a radical stem, which in turn rises from a small 
whitish, spongy tuber, three or four inches deep in the 
ground. But one stem usually grows from one tuber ; but 
frequently the stem is branched at or below the surface of 
the earth, and several scapes may arise in succession, each 
bearing one head. Frequently the stem may be destroyed, 
or even the top of the tuber cut off, in which case the tuber 
throws up a new stem from an almost invisible eye. The 
leaves, which may be called radical, are mostly at the top 
of the subterranean stem, and are fewer, shorter, and not 
so deeply gashed as dandelion leaves. The juice is milky, 
like lettuce. The stem has two or three scales with dormant 
buds between the leaves and the tuber; the tuber has sev- 
eral almost invisible eyes. 

A charming little bloomer in dry situations is white 
polygala, ten inches high, in dense tufts of slender stems, 
covered with spikes of small, white, oddly-shaped flowers, 
that last till the seed is half ripe. 

Toward the last of May, a very small species of aster- 
looking flower with white rays grows abundantly on dry 
rocks, and is interesting from that fact. It is a perennial 



78 TWENTIETH CENTtJEY CLASSICS 

herb five inches high, much branched, with minute, hard, 
very green heath-like leaves and white heads one-half inch 
across. It is quite rare except where it grows, and there 
it is plentiful enough. 

In the dry rocky and sandy bluffs of western Kansas 
may be seen small clumps of moss-like plants one or two 
inches high, with very small closely packed leaves, as on 
mosses, and covered with small white tubular flowers. 
This is the moss phlox. On attempting to pull up a 
plant it is found that considerable of a clump of flowers 
are fastened together by branches united underground 
into a trunk; and it appears as if a plant had started 
growing many years ago, and being almost covered up 
with sand had year after year been able to keep its head 
aboveground, until, when dug up it covered a space 
about fourteen inches across, with about fifty branches 
underneath, united below into fewer and fewer, finally 
into one stem about three inches long, which separated at 
its base into several small roots. The whole plant, when 
divested of its sand, was about eleven inches high, with 
a dome-shaped or flattish green top, compact, and greater 
in breadth than in height. 

Toward the close of May the straw-colored pincushion 
cactus opens its blossoms. The petals vary from a straw- 
color to amber. The stigmas are green. In a day or two 
the red pincushion cactus may be found in bloom. The 
petals vary from a pale pink to a bright red. The stigmas 
are red, pink, or pure white — never green. The plant, 
when not in bloom, is easily distinguished from the straw- 
colored cactus by its having several divergent brown spines 
on the ends of the tubercles, in addition to the circle of 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



79 



white spines. The flowers rise from the body of the plant 
in the axils of the tubercles. The fruit, too, is green when 
ripe, while that of the straw-colored species is red. Other- 
wise they are much alike. 

June. 

Squirrel - tail grass grows here and there along the 
sloughs, and must be seen to be appreciated. Seedsmen 
advertise it freely as an ornamental grass. 

Sandworts are common in the dry rocky and sandy hills 
of the west, and are very interesting with their whorls of 
green awl-shaped leaves at the joints, and their numerous 
small white flowers. They are usually tufted. 

Nearly everywhere on dry prairie and very abundantly 
on barren prairies, in central and western Kansas, grows 
the smoke-weed, a species of plantain, with hoary gray 
spikes eight inches high of minute white flowers. Growing 
alone on barren hillsides, it gives the land a bluish-white or 
smoky appearance ; and in western Kansas, where it grows 
abundantly in places, it is said to have been the cause of 
the name of the Smoky Hill river. 

In dry soils on low grounds in southwest Kansas, may 
be found a very rough branching composite, with pinnatifid 
leaves and numerous brown heads, with about eight yellow 
rays resembling coreopsis, except that the plant leans in- 
stead of growing erect, and is very rough. This is Engel- 
mannia, and is quite common in spots where it is to be 
found. 

About the middle of June, the wild gourd comes into 
bloom. The root is a large inverted cone, sometimes 12 
to 16 inches across, perennial, and throwing out numerous 
trailing vines each year from the margin of the crown. 



80 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

The leaves are large, rough, cordately triangular, rising 
from the vine right and left, and pointing outward. The 
fruit is globose, one at each leaf nearly, about the size of 
an orange, and striped yellow and green. 

On dry prairies is found the prairie cone-flower, a plant 
two and one-half feet high, with numerous brown or purple 
conical or columnar spikes, one and one-half inches long, 
and large yellow drooping rays. Sometimes the base of 
the rays is brown and sometimes the rays are entirely 
brown. 

There is another species of cone-flower, one and one- 
half feet high, with short yellow rays and finely divided 
foliage, found growing in clumps on lower prairies and 
also on dry rocky hills. 

Generally in sandy places grows the beautiful thistle 
poppy, with large, white flowers four inches across, with 
numerous yellow stamens. The leaves are green, with 
white veins, plenty of thorns, and the flower-buds and seed- 
pods are burry. 

Anywhere on the low prairies may be found a half- 
shrubby plant of the pea family, two or three feet high, 
with handsome racemes of whitish flowers followed by 
burry or prickly po'ds. The common name for this plant 
is bur-pea. The root is somewhat sweetish, with a slightly 
licorice-like taste. The plant is related to the licorice plant. 

On sandy prairies and on grassy hill-sides grows a spe- 
cies of 5-leafleted psoralea, called Indian bread-root The 
bulb from which the plant grows is about the shape and 
size of a small turnip, and is six or eight inches deep in the 
ground. The bulb, when not more than two years old, 
is soft and edible; but, after that, becomes hard and 



PIAOTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 81 

woody ; and when 6 or 8 years old, has attained a diameter 
of about two inches, and is composed of annual rings of 
wood like a tree. The wood is hard and close-grained 
as box- wood, and about as difficult to saw through; still 
the vertical diameter of such a bulb is not more than about 
three inches. 

About the middle of June, the buffalo-bur, a very 
prickly weed, too well known in Kansas, commences to 
open its yellow blossoms. When dead and dry it is one of 
the worst weeds to encounter, as the poisonous thorns 
break off in the flesh and inflict much pain. By a sort 
of reverse action it is a sign of a farmer's thrift; as it 
always grows abundantly in neglected fields. Kansas dis- 
owns the pest, and claims it is a gift from Colorado, or 
JSTew Mexico, or Sonora, or anywhere else outside of 
Kansas. The plant was the favorite food of the Colorado 
striped potato beetle until the arrival of the white man with 
his Andean potato, which proved so much more to the 
beetle's taste that he has abandoned the buffalo-bur (So- 
larium rostratum) and made his home permanently on the 
potato (Solatium tuberosum). He has even migrated to 
the East and invaded the potato-fields there; and, being 
no doubt misled by market reports and common accounts 
current, in his ambition to find the original potato-field, 
he has crossed the Atlantic ocean and attacked the fields 
of Ireland, England, Germany, and Spain. Let us hope 
that he may not also reach the mountains of Chili and 
Peru. 

Frequent on the prairies in the extreme western part of 
the State, in June, may be found some small cacti with 
vertical ribs and knots of thorns at regular distances. It 
—6 



82 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



is the green-flowered hedgehog cactus. They are usually 
two or three inches in height, and resemble very closely 
the pincushion cactus. The flower is green with a slight 
tinge of straw color, and opens between two and three 
o'clock in the afternoon and closes before sunset. They 
probably open several days in succession, though that has 
not been verified. 

On the dry prairies, in southwestern Kansas, may be 
found the prairie zinnia, a perennial, half-shrubby, tufted 
plant, rough and much branched, with many heads termi- 
nating the branches. The heads have 4 or 5 broad yellow 
rays, making flowers an inch and a half across. 

July. 

At Hutchinson, on the Arkansas, in the sand-hills near 
by, also on the Ninnescah, Chikaskia, and the Cimarron, 
appears a bushy shrub, like a clump of willows, and hav- 
ing narrow leaves much like the willow. But the flowers 
are different from those of any other tree in the eastern 
United States. It is the willow baccharis, a plant of the 
sunflower family. The staminate and pistillate blossoms 
are on separate trees. The seeds are in heads, and have a 
pappus. It is the only shrub of the sunflower family in 
the State. 

In low swampy spots in western Kansas may be seen 
clumps or patches of wild senna, a plant 7 feet high, with 
few branches at top. The flowers, which are like those 
of the cassia, are succeeded by pods, three or four inches 
long, with numerous seeds and walls between the seeds. 
When the plants have ripened, in the fall, the numerous 
pendulous brown pods give the plant a singular appearance. 

On the prairies of the northwest, in July, occurs abun- 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



83 



dantly in spots the cut-leaved evening-primrose, an erect 
plant a foot or so in height, plants numerously growing 
from a very long, horizontal, perennial underground root- 
stalks. The flowers are single in the axils, white, turning 
pink as they decay. The capsules are four-cornered. The 
leaves are pinnatifid. 

In sandy spots on the prairies of northern and western 
Kansas one may find a biennial evening-primrose, with 
straight erect stems, 3 feet high, lanceolate leaves, and 
terminal spikes of yellow flowers, with rhombic petals 
and calyx tubes one or two inches in length. The flowers 
open about sunset. 

On low grounds, in "draws," in northwestern Kansas, 
appears a beautiful pink evening-primrose, on short vines 
or stems that lean on the ground, several from the same 
perennial root. The flowers are 2-J inches across; are a 
bright rose-color and have heart-shaped petals. 

On the bluffs of central and southern Kansas is Fre- 
mont's evening-primrose with tufted stems, 6 inches long, 
from a perennial root, narrow silky leaves, and flowers 2 
inches across, with a calyx tube two to three inches long, 
and a seed capsule with four broad wings. This is similar 
to the Missouri evening-primrose, spoken of in the chapter 
on prairie flowers, and it grows in similar situations; 
but it is less silky than that ; the leaves are much narrower ; 
the flowers much shorter and not so broad ; and the wings 
of the capsules much less ; but both open at the same time 
of day. Specimens may frequently be found intermediate 
between the two ; and sometimes it will be difficult to tell 
which species the specimen most nearly resembles. 

On low grounds on the western prairies grows the great- 



84 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

flowered grindelia, a leafy plant 4 to 7 feet high, with a 
few branches on top, each terminated by a yellow composite 
flower, two inches across, with about 20 slender rays. The 
leaves are elliptic in outline, with spiny teeth like the leaves 
of holly, except more slender and more numerous. The 
plant is not dotted or gummy. 

On the low prairie near Garden City, and on alkaline 
prairies in many places in western Kansas, grows a plant 
that spreads on the ground like prostrate spurge; but, 
unlike spurge, it has larger, hoary-green, rhomboidal leaves, 
varying from one-third to one inch in length, and nearly 
equal in breadth. The branches and leaves are so numerous 
as almost to cover the ground. The leaves are covered 
with a dense woolly tomentum, with branching or stellate 
hairs. The flowers are not noticeable. The plant is 
named Cladothrix. 

On barren tracts in southwestern Kansas may be found 
great fields of spider-flower, a species of cleome with hand- 
some, ill-scented foliage, and racemes of pretty pinkish flow- 
ers, having each six long stamens (legs) hanging down from 
the flower, like the legs of a mudwasp when he flies. The 
flowers yield honey; though, where they grow, bees must 
be very scarce. 

In gravelly hills, or old quarries on southern hillsides, 
grows the clammy weed, a viscid, coarse weed, about a 
foot high, with three leaflets to each leaf, a terminal raceme 
of ill-scented flowers, and upright pods somewhat inflated. 
It belongs to the same order as the last, and is a bitter, 
clammy, disagreeable plant. It endures very hot weather. 

On dry prairies in the buffalo-grass region may be seen 
a plant called nailwort. It is like a little tree, six inches 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 85 

high and eight or ten inches across, much branched and 
forming a rounded dome of green on top that is very con- 
spicuous on the prairie. The leaves are opposite and awl- 
shaped, and at the base of each leaf two stipules, that are 
very thin and transparent, also awl-shaped and nearly as 
long as the leaves proper. This makes apparently six 
leaves in a whorl at each node or joint, four shorter than 
the other two. The flowers are on top, very numerous, 
small, green, 5-pointed, and inconspicuous. 

In rocky and sandy bluffs is found another species of 
nailwort, very like the one mentioned ; but with the trunk 
and branches often covered up with sand, giving the top a 
mossy appearance. 

On the sandy and dry plains of southwestern Kansas 
may be found vast quantities of " sage-bush," a species 
of shrubby artemisia two to three feet high, growing in 
small clumps at distances of 10 or 20 feet or more, often 
much more. This is an aromatic composite plant, with 
numerous very small heads, and with simple hoary leaves 
having three rounded teeth at the tip. 

Many other species of artemisia or "wild sage" are 
found all over the State, most of them with very narrow 
or finely divided hoary, woolly, or silvery leaves. They 
are well adapted to the climate. 



86 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



CHAPTER III. 

PLANT HABITS. 

1.— ANNUAL PHENOMENA. 

The character of the plants in bloom varies perceptibly 
from week to week. For instance, all fruit and forest trees 
have passed blooming with the month of May; crucifers 
and crowfoots have been quite numerous early in the 
season; leguminous plants are more frequently seen 
in June ; the showy figworts and kindred plants are becom- 
ing frequent then ; these will be succeeded by the mints in 
the middle of summer; to be followed in turn by the 
universal composite, which hold their reign majestically 
until snow comes in winter; as the sow-thistle continues 
to bloom until November. 

That plants have a regular time each year for leafing, 
blooming, and fruiting, is a fact well known. From the 
first blooming of the hazel, early in March or even in Feb- 
ruary, to the final blooming of the sow-thistle, in Novem- 
ber, there is a constant succession of bloom, and each and 
every plant passes through the successive steps of its de- 
velopment in its appropriate season. There may be a 
difference in early spring of as much as thirty days in 
the first blooming of certain plants, according to the ad- 
vancement of the season. As the summer progresses the 
differences of time of first blooming in different years de- 
crease, until in midsummer it is rare to find a difference 
so great as ten days in the different years ; and later in the 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



87 



fall it must be an unusual year indeed that makes even so 
much of a difference as ten days to occur in the first 
blooming of a plant at any one place. Hence, in general 
terms, a late spring, an early fall, and a short growing sea- 
son, hastens the growth and development of a plant ; and a 
long season retards the maturity and increases the growth 
of the plant. 

Generally, plants are so prompt about their motions, 
such as the opening of leaves and flowers, that an average 
day may be taken for the first blooming of any individual 
species; and that particular species will be ordinarily 
found in bloom within three days from the appointed 
time, but oftener on the particular day. This refers es- 
pecially to particular plants in a certain location. 

Each species has its set time for performing its differ- 
ent functions ; each different variety has its own time, often 
differing widely, as in the ripening of apples. Further 
than that, each individual tree has its own certain time for 
opening its leaves, blooming, and ripening its fruit, from 
which it seldom or never varies a day in years having 
equal temperature during the days and months preceding 
the looked-for phenomena. For instance, a certain large 
male cottonwood tree comes into bloom usually about April 
8th, and in four days it has shed all its blossoms. Four 
days later, April 12th, a large male cottonwood tree opens 
its blossoms. On the 13th it is fairly magnificent in its 
wealth of bloom, and two days later it has shed every blos- 
som. Five days later a large male cottonwood expands its 
flowers and for two days is a most beautiful object, and 
then promptly sheds its limp aments with their depleted 
anthers. Between the extremes mentioned, or say between 



8S 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



April 6 th and April 20th, every cotton wood tree, male and 
female, has fulfilled its estival mission and started in 
untold numbers the germs of future cottonwood trees. 

2.— DIUKNAL PHENOMENA. 

Not only do plants have a season for blooming, but many 
plants also have a particular hour of the day for unfolding 
their petals and a particular hour for shutting up shop 
and retiring. 

The morning-glories, for instance, are like milkmen; 
they are at their best early in the morning and retire about 
noon. The common morning-glory opens before 5 o'clock, 
and the blue morning-glory opens after 5, or about an hour 
later. 

Similarly, our wild bush morning-glory of the prairies, 
the immense roots of which many of our western Kansas 
farmers have encountered with the plow, opens at 4 o'clock 
in the morning, very regularly. 

Two other species of morning-glory, both with small 
white flowers, open still earlier. One of these, the field 
bindweed, has small arrow-shaped leaves and creeps on the 
ground; the other, the scarlet cypress-vine, has medium- 
sized, heart-shaped leaves, with a small lobe on each side, 
and climbs. Both of these have tuberous roots, and hence 
are, in a sense, perennial. 

The common white morning-glory, or bindweed of our 
hedges and thickets, opens very early in the morning, per- 
haps soon after midnight; and yet another, the common 
white creeper, opens several hours before midnight, or late 
in the evening ; hence is called the evening beauty. Several 
other species of Ipomoea, commonly called moon-flowers, 
open at early evening and close at daylight. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



89 



One remarkable thing about this family of morning- 
glories remains to be told : all the night-blooming species 
are pure white, and all the morning-blooming kinds are 
colored. True, there are white varieties of many of the 
day-blooming kinds, as a white variety of the purple morn- 
ing-glory, a white variety of the blue morning-glory, a 
white variety of the red-flowered cypress-vine, etc. ; but in 
all of these there are traces in the center, or along the ribs 
of the corolla, of the original color, and none of them is 
pure white. 

The crimson poppy-mallow, one of the brightest and 
most frequent flowers of the low prairies, is a regular 
farmer, opening early in the morning, usually before 7, 
and closing from 6 to 7 in the evening, thus putting in a 
good honest twelve hours each day. It reopens next morn- 
ing for several days in succession, thus making most of its 
resources. 

But, though the flowers reopen and are ready for work 
several days in succession, the pistils and stamens of the 
same flower do not work together. Flowers differ in 
this regard. Sometimes it is the stamens that are active 
first, though generally the reverse is true. 

Suppose their anthers are ripe the first day: to the 
visiting insects, invited by the odor of the delicious nectar 
at the base of the flower, the stamens freely give up their 
load of pollen, and often without asking the insect's per- 
mission. Next day, when the flower reopens, the stamens, 
having been active on the previous day, have gone to sleep 
and the pistils are wide awake and ready to receive pollen 
through their stigmas. There is still some nectar left. In- 
sects are invited again; and they come bringing in their 



90 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



hands (on their feet) and on their backs some gifts of pol- 
len from a neighboring flower. It is the price they pay for 
the nectar they receive. The stigmas are ready to receive 
it and catch the pollen with avidity, without harming the 
insect in the least ; and no doubt the insect is glad to have 
part of its burden removed. Both insect and flower are 
benefited by the change. 

This work completed, the flower opens no more. The 
nectar is gone ; the petals lose their brilliance and drop off ; 
the stamens wilt and fall ; but the pistil grows and grows, 
and ripens seed. 

The dandelion, a very different flower from the crimson 
mallow, keeps the same hours. The dandelion, though, like 
the farmer's hired man, has an additional trick — he closes 
up if it is going to rain more than the merest shower, and 
doesn't go to work again till the sky has cleared. How 
beautifully the dandelion, when his seeds are ripe, folds 
back his involucre (his cloak), and every individual seed 
raises high his parachute above his head and goes sailing 
away on the breeze when his turn comes. 

Violet sorrel opens early in the morning and closes about 
noon. The spiderwort and dayflower do the same. They 
belong to the Early Closing Association. 

Specularia, the old maid's mirror, is a pretty, purple, 
star-shaped flower, frequent everywhere on the prairies; 
but, to be seen at all, she must be seen when she is ready 
for callers, namely, from 9 a. m. to 2 p. m. She doesn't 
reappear next day in the same dress, but has a new one each 
day. 

The regularity of opening of many members of the chick- 
weed and purslane families is well known, the former flow- 
ers opening in the evening, the latter in the morning. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF EAJ5TSAS 



91 



The portulacas and yellow flaxes and bluets are bankers, 
not merely because they grow on a bank. They open for 
business at 9 o'clock in the morning and close at 2 in the 
afternoon. Then, too, look at the silver in their leaves and 
the gold in their coffers (anthers). These are the wealth 
of the flowers. And if you turn their leaves over you will 
see plenty of green backs. 

The cactuses, nearly all of which bloom in June, will be 
found to be periodical and regular in their habits. They 
open at various hours ; but any one kind always opens and 
closes at the same hours. 

Another group of flowers noted for their great regularity 
is our wild four-o'clocks, called allionia. The common 
kind, with the large, heart-shaped leaves, opens its flowers 
very regularly every afternoon at 4 o'clock, even much 
more regularly than the four-o'clock of the gardens. 
Another, with a deeply-lobed white calyx, opens at 5 
o'clock, or from that to 6. All the species of allionia open 
late in the afternoon. 

How many have noticed our common jimson opening 
from 5 to 6 o'clock every evening? Just as regularly, it 
closes early in the morning. Several of our cultivated 
jimsons, with their magnificent white flowers and delight- 
ful fragrance, open very promptly at sunset, and close just 
as regularly in the early morning. 

Another plant of an order somewhat allied to the morn- 
ing-glories, and with a strong tendency to periodicity, is 
the fragrant heliotrope, which is common on the sandy 
plains of southwestern Kansas, and spreads its sweet- 
scented white trumpet flowers in early twilight. 

Several plants of an order allied to the evening-prim- 



92 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



roses, and somewhat to the poppies, are periodic in the time 
of opening their flowers. The small orange-flowered ment- 
zelia opens early in the morning and closes about 1 o'clock 
in the afternoon. 

The tall mentzelia with remarkably large, creamy-white 
flowers, opens at three o'clock in the afternoon, with its 
buds all turned toward the southwestern sky, so that the 
flowers open directly in the face of the sun, just as the 
daily temperature has begun to decline. 

The great-flowered mentzelia, with still larger, yellowish- 
white flowers, opens an hour or two later. Both of these 
close early next morning, and remain asleep all day to 
reopen in the afternoon. 

The evening-primroses, too, have as great variation in 
their times of blooming. Like the printers on the morning 
papers, they open very promptly about 7 o'clock in the 
evening and continue to exhibit their splendors to the star- 
clad world until the rosy morn. 

The common great-flowered evening-primrose opens very 
promptly at 7 o'clock in the evening, and wilts about 7 
o'clock next morning. 

A still larger and more remarkable flower, the Missouri 
evening-primrose, found on the rocky hills of eastern Kan- 
sas, opens more promptly at 7 o'clock, or just about sunset. 

A small-flowered species, the cone-stem evening-prim- 
rose, opens earlier, or about 6 o'clock, and remains in bloom 
all next day. 

One species, the white evening-primrose, blooms in the 
morning and continues in full bloom all day, finally turn- 
ing slightly pink. 

The gauras, belonging to the same family, are just as 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 93 

regular in their habits. The scarlet gaura opens at 6 
o'clock in the evening; is a pure white all night; and 
changes to a beautiful rose-color at daylight, which color 
deepens slightly until early afternoon, when the flower 
wilts. 

Biennial gaura, a tall weed with long, slender, far-reach- 
ing branches, opens its pure white flowers an hour after 
dark, from 8 to 9 in the evening, and remains open until 
about 10 o'clock next day, still very white, but changing 
slightly to rose-color before fading. 

The small-flowered gaura, known by its silky leaves, 
opens at the same hour, closes a little earlier, and changes 
strongly to rose-color before fading. 

These features are here tabulated into a sort of floral 
clock for the State of Kansas. 

3.— FLOEAL CLOCK FOE KANSAS. 

This "clock" represents the time of day of the opening 
and closing of a large number of native flowers of Kansas, 
and is the result of many years' observations on Kan- 
sas plants. The time given for each species is that observed 
during the height of the flowering season for that particular 
species. The time of opening (and closing) is modified 
somewhat by the length of the day and dense cloudiness. 
The clock is still subject to correction, the result of further 
needed and closer observation: 

1 a. m. Thistle poppy ; flowers remain open all day. 

Hoary bindweed ; flowers close about noon. 

2 a. m. Hedge bindweed ; flowers close at evening. 

Wild moonflower ; close at 10 a. m. 

3 a. m. Bush morning-glory ; flowers close at noon. 

Wild potato vine ; close about 2 p. m. 



94 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



4 a. m. Scarlet cypress-vine ; close about noon ; except in 
cloudy weather. 

White evening-primrose; last all day. 

Dwarf dandelion ; close at 10 a. m. 
5a.m. Purple morning-glory; flowers close about 11 
a. m. ? except in cloudy weather. 

Blue morning-glory ; close about noon, except in 
cloudy weather. 

Small mentzelia ; close at 1 p. m. 

Day-flower ; close in heat of hay. 

Dwarf morning-glory ; close at 3 p. m. 

Yellow water-lily ; close at 6 p. m. ; reopen sev- 
eral days in succession. 

6 a. m. Prickly lettuce ; flowers close before noon. 

Tooth-leaved gas-plant; close early in afternoon. 

Spiderwort ; close about noon. 

Small-leaved gas-plant; close early in the after- 
noon. 

Sow-thistle; wither at noon. 

Spring beauty; close in afternoon; reopen once. 

Crimson poppy-mallow ; close 6 to 7 p.m.; re- 
open next day once or twice. 

White water-lily ; close at 3 p. m. ; reopen sev- 
eral days in succession. 

Field bindweed; flowers close at noon in sun- 
shine, later in cloudy weather. 

7 a. m. Tuberous dandelion ; flowers close at 6 p.m.; re- 

open for several days in succession; close also 
in continued rain or dense cloudiness. 

Wild lettuce; close about 11 a. m. 

Wild geranium ; close at noon. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 95 

Blue-flowered wild lettuce ; close after noon. 
Ruellia ; flowers drop off about 3 p. m. 
Water-willow ; drop off middle of afternoon. 
Hairy hawkweed ; close middle of afternoon. 
Notched purslane ; close after noon. 

8 a. m. Pink poppy-mallow ; flowers close in the evening 

to reopen next day. 
Wild dandelion ; close at dusk ; reopen next day. 
Dandelion; close at dark to reopen next day, 

except in rainy weather, when it may be closed 

in daytime and open at night. Do not close for 

a shower in sunshiny weather. 
Flower-of-an-hour ; close before noon. 
Oxalis ; close at noon for good. 
Pink oxalis ; close at noon to reopen once. 
Bluets; close at noon; reopen for two or three 

days in succession. 

9 a. m. Yellow flax ; petals fall off at 1 p. m. 

Large-flowered yellow flax; petals fall off at 2 
p. M. 

Little bluets ; flowers close at 2 p. m. ; reopen 
next day once. 

Venus mirror ; close permanently at 2 p. m. 

Purslane ; wilt after noon. 

Wild portulaca ; close at 1 p. m. ; do not reopen ; 
while the flowers of the great-flowered portu- 
laca, a cultivated plant said to be a variety of 
this, and whose flowers open and close about 
the same time, do reopen. 
10 a. m. Wild cucumber; flowers close at 3 p. m. 

Velvet leaf ; close before noon. 

Prickly sida ; close at 2 p. m. 



96 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

Many-spined prickly-pear ; close at 4 p. m. to re- 
open for several days. This has sensitive 
stamens. 
11a.m. Large-flowered talinum; flowers close early in 
afternoon. 
Wild gourd ; close at 3 p. m. 
Little prickly-pear ; close at 4 p. m. to reopen 
for several days. 
12 m. Western prickly-pear ; flowers close at 5 p. m. to 
reopen. 

1 p. m. Evening hibiscus ; flowers remain open until 

dark. 
Terete-leaved talinum ; close 2 to 3 p. m. 
Catchfly ; close at 3 to 4 p. m. 

2 p. m. Straw-colored pincushion cactus ; flowers close at 

5 p. m. to reopen next day. 
Red pincushion cactus ; close at 5 p. m. to reopen 
next day. 

3 p. m. Tall mentzelia ; close at daylight to reopen. 

Starry campion; close toward midnight. 

4 p. m. Crimson wild four-o'clock ; flowers close next 

morning at sunrise. 
White allionia; flowers close next morning. 

5 p. m. Great mentzelia ; close in the morning to reopen 

in the evening. 
Evening catch-fly ; wilt next morning. 
Cone-stem evening-primrose ; last nearly all next 

day. 

6 p. m. Eragrant abronia ; wilt early in the morning. 

Jimson; wilt next morning. 
Evening beauty ; close next morning. 



PLANTS AND FLOWEKS OF KANSAS 



9T 



Scarlet gaura; flowers turn pink next morning 

and fade about 11 a. m. 
Stemless evening-primrose ; last all next day. 
Tall evening-primrose; wilt next day. 
Sweet-scented heliotrope ; wilt next day. 
Point-petaled evening-primrose; wilt n^xt day 

about 9 to 10 a. m. 
Small-flowered evening-primrose; wilt next day. 

7 p. m. Missouri evening-primrose ; flowers wilt at sun- 

rise. 
Great - flowered evening - primrose ; open very 

promptly ; wilt at 7 a. m. next day. 
Pink evening-primrose ; wilt next morning. 
Fremont's evening-primrose ; open promptly ; 

wilt at 9 a. m. next day. 

8 p. m. Biennial gaura ; flowers wilt promptly at 10 a. m. 

next day. 
Small-flowered gaura; wilt about 11 a. m. next 
day. 

9 p. m. Tall gaura ; flowers last and remain white all next 

day. 

NOTES ON THE CLOCK. 

There are many other plants that open at periodic times ; 
but observations upon them have not been sufficient to 
determine positively their habits. The above clock con- 
tains only native and naturalized plants. If cultivated 
plants were placed in it the 24 hours would be completely 
filled. Moonflowers and night-blooming cacti fill the rest. 

In cases where a flower reopens for several successive 
days, it will be seen that the stigmas and stamens are ready 
for action on different days. 
—7 



98 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



It has been mentioned that night-blooming plants are 
always white or yellow ; and that all blue, purple, and red 
flowers are day-blooming, — not that all yellow or white 
flowers are night-blooming, or that all day-blooming flowers 
are blue, purple, or red. 

Why are night-blooming flowers white or yellow ? Isn't 
the reason for this very clear ? They can be distinctly seen 
for long distances by night-flying insects. 

4.— INSECT FKIENDS. 

It may seem that many plants have preferences among 
the insects. For instance : The Missouri evening-primrose 
admits the cecropia moth only ; no other moth has a sucker 
long enough to reach the nectar, which is at a depth of 
nearly six inches; and no other moth is so well adapted 
to perform the important office of fertilization. The great- 
flowered evening-primrose admits both cecropia and poly- 
phemus moths ; other species of evening-primroses are not 
so particular. 

Again, the red clover, with its large stores of honey, does 
not admit the common honey-bee ; so that that insect must 
confine its labors to white clover or other flowers adapted 
to the bee's structure. The red clover prefers the bumble- 
bee ; and the form of that insect is found to be best adapted 
to fertilization of that plant. So farmers raising clover 
seed would do well to spare the bumble-bees. The bumble- 
bee is the farmer's friend. 

Thus it may be seen that every kind of flower has one 
or more particular kinds of insects best adapted to it, and 
opens at the time of day only when such insects are on the 
wing. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



99 



5.— SENSITIVENESS IN ELOWEES. 

One curious feature in this connection may be men- 
tioned: The common prickly-pear conceals no nectar; its 
stamens are not merely sensitive — they are irritable to* a 
high degree; and when an insect, attracted by the sight 
and odor, alights upon the flower, the stamens immediately 
spring in upon him from all around and cover him with 
pollen. Taken by surprise, he immediately flies away, 
perhaps to another flower of the same kind, to be treated 
in the same manner ; but, in all probability, the prominent 
style of the prickly pear is ready to receive the pollen, and 
quickly catches some of that which the insect has brought 
with him from a neighboring flower. 

6.— SENSITIVENESS IN PLANTS. 

a. TO TOUCH. 

Are leaves, tendrils, flowers, branches, roots, seeds, etc., 
sensitive to light, to varying conditions of the atmosphere, 
to touch, to contiguity of objects, to gravity ? 

We have seen, first, how some plants prefer the water, 
some the wet earth, others dry earth, and still others the 
most exposed situations; how some prefer shade, and 
others enjoy the bright sunshine; how each kind of plant 
has its preferences, in lack of which it fails to thrive. 

We have seen also, in studying the diurnal habits of 
plants, how each kind of flower knows when morning, 
evening, and midday come; when it is dark and when it 
is daylight; how the flower knows when its friend among 
the insects comes. 

Plants move; but not quickly. Eew plants move 
quickly; and as we do not see them move, we are apt to 
underrate their sensitiveness. 



100 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

The sensitive brier is one that appeals to us, as we can 
in that see instant motion. The plant does not move for 
ordinary occurrences. The wind may blow and shake; 
neighboring grasses and plants may touch and even press ; 
the leaves remain open and unmoved; but let a live 
creature touch it, and see how quickly the leaflets fold 
together. Touch it again harder, and see the entire leaf 
fold down toward the branch. Frequent meddling of this 
kind causes the plant to die. 

Plants are sensitive to touch. 

o o o o 
b. TO GRAVITY. 

A seedling plant starts to grow. Does it know how to 
grow ? Watch it. The roots shoot downward and the stem 
grows upward. That is, they do that so far as circum- 
stances will admit. If a plant starts in a perpendicular 
bank the roots run into the bank and downward ; the stem 
outward and upward. 

Were it not for the constant influence of gravity on a 
plant it would grow in whatever direction it first started, 
which might be at right angles to a perpendicular bank, 
or might even be downward. But stems always grow 
upward as near as possible, and roots downward. 

Plants are sensitive to gravity. 

o o o o 
C. TO CONTIGUITY OF OBJECTS. 

If the plant be a twining vine, as soon as it has attained 
sufficient length, the terminal bud begins to move around in 
a circle, the hop around to the right, looking outward from 
the center, the morning-glory to the left. As the vine 
grows it increases gradually the circle in which it moves, 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 101 

until finally it touches something or drops to the ground 
from exhaustion or of its own weight. As soon as it has 
touched something, it makes a short turn and wraps 
around it, though it may be only another similar vine 
unable to support it. 

These motions result always in each plant growing in 
the place that is best adapted to its growth. Why, for in- 
stance, does the ampelopsis climb a tree, and the Virginia 
creeper a stone or brick wall, in preference to a bush or a 
haystack ? 

The tendrils of the vine at first, like the tendrils of a 
grape-vine, seek the dark side of the vine, and finding a 
solid vertical support that they cannot grasp, accommodate 
themselves to the conditions and flatten the tips, forming 
sucking disks that take firm hold of the tree or the face of 
the brick or stone. Here the vine thrives best; and all 
that portion of the vine leading to the tree, which may be 
fifty feet from where the seed germinated, dies, giving the 
vine the appearance of having germinated at the base of 
the tree or wall. 

The same is true of the climbing ivy, which, in order 
to hold to a tree, sends out numerous rootlets from any 
place along the dark side of the vine ; and the ampelopsis 
has its sucker-like tendrils at the joints; but how do the 
wistaria and the clematis manage to climb ? In these cases, 
branches act as tendrils, partly. They bend around pro- 
jections, and, stiffening with age, hold the vine. Tem- 
porarily, leaves do the same thing until the branches have 
grown. 

Why does the pumpkin or gourd climb an old straw- 
stack and not a tree ? They have tendrils, too. 



102 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



Trees and stone walls and bluffs are permanent features. 
The ampelopsis and ivy are perennial vines. They are 
adapted to each other. 

Hay- and straw-stacks are temporary features. Pumpkin 
and gourd vines are annual vines. They are adapted to 
each other. 

We know that if a pumpkin vine should climb a tree the 
weight of the fruit would destroy the vine. We do not 
need to suppose that the pumpkin can reason. Let it be 
sufficient to say that an old strawstack or brushpile and a 
gourd vine are adapted to each other. 

A large cottonwood tree has a limb a foot in diameter 
about ten feet from the ground. The limb is forty feet 
long and rises from the horizontal about 30 degrees. The 
limb has many branches and leaves, nearly horizontal. 

The tree has many other limbs and branches above the 
one mentioned. Standing in a window near by and looking 
toward the tree, one may see sky all along between the 
limb mentioned and those above. There is no pressure 
anywhere. The constant strain of the weight of the limb 
on itself must be great. Yet fifteen years' acquaintance 
with that tree and limb shows no sign of change in the 
direction of growth. It only grows longer and larger. 

Suppose all of the tree above that limb were removed 
without disturbing it. Would the limb continue to 
grow in the same direction as before? Would not every 
branch and bud on the limb immediately commence to 
grow straight up ? 

Was that limb forced to grow in the direction spoken of 
by pressure against the limbs above it ? Not at all. 

How did the limb and every branch and twig and leaf 
on it know that theTe were other objects above it and that 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 103 

If it reached the sky at all it must take the angle it did ? 
Probably the action of light has caused each leaf and 
branch to so arrange itself as to get the proper amount 
for its best development. 

Plants are sensitive to contiguity of surrounding objects. 

o o o o 
d. TO ATMOSPHERIC INFLUENCES. 

The dandelion opens regularly every sunshiny morning 
at 8 o'clock and closes at 6 in the evening. On densely 
cloudy and rainy days it does not open until the rain clears 
off. Or, if a rain and much cloudiness come up while 
the flowers are open, they close. If it be rainy all day, 
the flowers remain closed all day. If a second rainy day 
follow, a few flowers open toward noon or in the afternoon. 
If this be followed by a third rainy day, many flowers 
open ; but they are a forlorn and sorry-looking lot. 

The seeds of the weather-grass (Stipa) have each, at its 
upper end, an awn about four to six inches long. Each 
seed has also at its lower end or point, a circle of small 
hairs or barbs reaching back toward the awn. The awn 
when ripe twists and bends at right angles in the middle, 
like an auger with one handle. In damp weather or at 
night, it untwists and partly straightens. This forces the 
seed forward. When the awn dries again, it twists and 
draws up. As the seed cannot retreat on account of the 
barbs, the tail of the awn follows. And as the tail in 
twisting cannot, on account of obstructions, revolve like 
the handle of an auger, the seed must twist again, forcing 
it forward; so the seed moves forward into the ground, 
whether the awn twists or untwists. 

Plants are sensitive to atmospheric influences. 



104 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

e. TO TIME. 

Leaves, like flowers, often have certain times of the day 
for opening and closing. Most noticeable among these are 
certain species of spurge and dogbane. These plants have 
opposite leaves, and in the case of the spurges, oblique, or 
lefts and rights; and, as soon as the dew begins to fall, 
they fold together in pairs, as a child folds its hands in 
prayer, and with the light-colored under-side out, remain 
thus all night. 

Many of the pea family, notably cassia, sensitive peas, 
and beggar's lice, fold their leaflets at night. These leaflets 
are jointed to the midrib, and the midrib to the branch, 
by noticeable articulations that allow a motion of both 
leaflet and leaf. Daylight opens the leaflets and raises 
the leaf. Thus, leaves are said to be asleep when they 
are closed for the night. 

But not all plants fold their leaves with the faces to- 
gether, as do the plants of the pea family. The sorrel, for 
example, folds its leaflets back to back, and the whole leaf 
drops from its junction with the petiole. Again, velvet- 
leaf, with its very large, velvety leaves, droops straight 
down from the junction of the blade with the petiole; the 
petiole remaining in its normal position, and the leaf 
hanging face outward. 

Plants are sensitive to time. 

o o o o 
/. TO LIGHT AND HEAT. 

Everyone, probably, has seen the sunflower turn its 
leaves eastward to the morning sun, and westward in the 
evening. Many other plants do precisely the same thing, 
among which may be noted beans, ragweed, rosinweed, 
marigold, and many other plants of various families. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 105 

One notable plant of this character is a certain variety 
of turkey-bean whose leaves turn eastward in the morning 
and westward in the afternoon. To facilitate this, all the 
branches and branchlets grow toward the north and south, 
so that the leaves simply have to rise on the one side and 
lower on the other. 

In the case of the compass-plant, where the two surfaces 
of the leaf are just about alike, the leaves do not turn 
one face upward, but stand vertical, with one face to the 
east and the other to the west, and with the edges north 
and south. Thus, the leaves, which are rigid, get the 
benefit of the morning and evening light and avoid the 
intense light of noonday. This plant only grows on the 
open prairie, in a sunshiny country. 

But do plants actually see ? 

How often have we seen potato-sprouts, turnip-tops, and 
other plants in the cellar, stretching out as far as possible 
and leaning over in an attempt to reach the window where 
the only feeble rays of light enter the cellar. In the same 
way we have all seen, in the open air, the leaves turn their 
faces up to the light ; and when they grow on the side of a 
house, turn sidewise to the light ; and if under a roof, will 
still turn their faces toward the brightest light. And the 
tendrils, those modified forms of leaves, always turn away 
from the light. 

We are not aware that we are cognizant of light by any 
organ except our eyes, and we call that seeing. The plane 
is cognizant of light in its leaves, in all their modifications. 
Is it not, at least, analogous to seeing ? 

Plants are sensitive to light and heat. 



106 



TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 



CHAPTER IV. 

POLLINATION AND REPRODUCTION. 

Life in plants, as in animals, consists of two sexes, male 
and female. A union of the two sexes in the higher plants 
is essential to the production of a new life. 

1.— METHODS OE REPRODUCTION. 

Perpetuation of species may result from either of two 
methods : 

1st. Division by separation of leaf-buds, which are sex- 
less, as in grafting an apple, budding a peach, or layering 
a grape. Separation of tubers, bulbs, corms, runners, etc., 
is equivalent to separation of buds, and reproduces the 
same kind of plant, with such slight modification as may 
be owing to climate, soil, or other environing condition 
or influence. 

2d. Reproduction by union of reproductive parts, which 
are sexual. 

Individual lives in plants may be differently considered. 
A tree, for instance, may be deemed an aggregate or com- 
pound being, and each bud may be considered an indi- 
vidual. 

Each flower may be regarded as a community in which 
the members are all male, all female, or both male and 
female. Where the members of the flower are all male, 
the flower is called staminate or sterile; where the mem- 
bers are all female, the flower is called pistillate or fer- 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



107 



tile; and where flowers comprise both, male and female 
members, the flower is called perfect. The male members 
are always placed in the outer set or sets of apartments; 
the female members are always placed in the center, the 
sanctum, the best-protected place, the culmination of 
growth. 

a. MALE FLOWERS. 

The stamen, the male organ, consists of two parts : the 
filament and the anther. The anther contains the pollen. 

The filament is merely the stem of the stamen. It is 
usually small, like a thread; it may be long or short, or 
entirely absent as in the silkweed (or milkweed). 

The anther is a double glandular organ on top of the 
filament. It is fixed to the filament in a great variety of 
ways, commonly, nicely balanced by its center on the tip of 
the filament, as in the lily; at other times firmly fixed 
to the filament like the blade of a spade to its handle, as in 
the pumpkin. The anther usually has two cells, which 
commonly, but not always, open by a slit on the side of each 
cell, farthest from the pistil; though sometimes by a 
minute pore at the end, as in the huckleberry. 

The pollen is the minute white or yellow powder con- 
tained in the cells of the anther, discharged when ripe 
through the pore, or slit, or other rupture in the cell wall. 
In order to reproduce, it must be carried by some means 
to the stigma of another flower of the same kind. Pollen 
grains differ in size and shape in about as many different 
ways as there are kinds of plants. Usually the grains are 
single and separate, but often they are fastened together 
for some purpose in the plant economy. 



108 



TWENTIETH CENTUEY CLASSICS 



b. FEMALE FLOWERS. 

The pistil (the female organ) of a flower consists of 
three parts : the ovary, the style, and the stigma. 

The ovary is the sack or pocket containing the minute 
ovules, the germs of future seed. The ovary may consist 
of a single cell or carpel, as in the pea; of a double one, 
as in the mustard ; of two separate ones, as in the parsnip 
and the maple; of three cells, as in the watermelon; of 
four, as in the evening-primrose ; of five, as in the apple ; : 
of ten, as in the lemon, etc. 

The style is the stalk, and may be very short, as in the 
squash ; or none at all, as in the pine tree ; or many inches 
in length, as in the silk of Indian corn. The style of a 
compound fruit may be simple, and usually appears sim- 
ple, as in the evening-primroses, the mints, and the sola- 
nums. In the evening-primrose, the long slender style aris- 
ing from a four-celled ovary, spreads at the top into four 
stigmas. This indicates that the style, small and slender 
as it is, contains four tubes for the passing of the pollen 
down to the ovules. 

The stigma is the receptive end of the style, though not 
always the very end, as in the corn, in which the whole side 
of the exposed portion of the silk is receptive. 

This silk contains on its sides rows of very short hairs, 
standing at an angle of about sixty degrees from the silk. 
These are for the purpose of holding the grains of pollen 
that fall upon the silk. In the axil of each hair there is a 
minute pore, through which the pollen finds its way to the 
interior of the silk, whence it passes down to the ovule at 
its base. It is known that the contents of a single pollen 
grain falling upon a silk will find its way down to the 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 109 

ovule. The contents of a single grain, however, are all 
that is needed to produce the grain of corn. Should no 
grain of pollen fall upon the silk, or should the silk become 
cut, as by a cutworm, or broken before receiving a grain of 
pollen, there will be no grain of corn on the cob at the base 
of that silk. 

C. NEUTRAL FLOWERS. 

There is still another class of flowers besides male and 
female,— the neutral flowers. They have neither stamens 
nor pistils. They are usually large and showy, and are 
produced by cultivation, as in the snowball and hydrangea. 
Such plants are not reproduced from seed, but are propa- 
gated by other vegetative methods. 

cZ.— PECULIARITIES OF FLORAL ORGANS. 

Although at normally equal distances around the pistil, 
it sometimes happens that the stamens group themselves 
in a certain direction, as though the presence of the anthers 
in that direction were needed. 

In most flowers of the pea family the lower nine of the 
ten stamens are joined together by their filaments, forming 
a sort of split tube that enfolds and protects the pistil. The 
end of the pistil is bent sharply upward. The ends of the 
filaments are free, alternately long and short, and all bent 
upward, carrying the anthers on their tips. The two lower 
petals of the flower are united, forming a sort of shoe, 
called the keel (because somewhat boat-shaped), that in- 
closes, protects and hides the essential organs. Nectar is 
abundant and sweet-scented, and the flower stands wide 
open, inviting the visits of flying insects. A bee, for in- 
stance, in search of nectar, lights on the horizontal keel. 
His weight bends the keel down a little. The strength, 



110 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



size, shape, color, and odor, of all floral organs are nicely 
adjusted to the requirements. The pistil and stamens, 
being in the middle and not being stepped on, do not sink. 
First, the stigma of the pistil touches the bee on the under 
side and removes some of the pollen he carries from other 
flowers previously visited. Then the bee, crawling forward 
a step or two, receives a fresh supply of pollen from the 
anthers, which are nearer the nectary than is the stigma. 

The stamens (eight) in the gauras and (many) in the 
cacti are declined downward, as the pistil in those flowers 
is so large and heavy it falls to the lower side of the flower. 

The stamens in the figworts, mints, and others, are 
declined upward in (one or two) pairs, with their anthers 
united, and facing downward, ready to powder the back of 
any large flying insect that comes for nectar. The fifth or 
lowest stamen, not having a mate, is quite rudimentary, 
and is never furnished with an anther. 

In the pentstemon the fifth stamen grows to full size, 
and, finding itself neglected in the struggle for perpetua- 
tion, bends sharply upward, closing the passage to the 
nectary against creeping insects which do it no good, but 
not closing it against the proboscis of a butterfly, a de- 
sirable insect, which brings pollen from another flower 
and carries away pollen to another. The stamen, after 
closing the orifice, stands straight out among the other 
stamens, simulating a pistil and deceiving some insects, 
which, seeking to avoid it so as not to get sticky, get 
against the true pistil, and leave pollen brought from 
another flower. 

In the salvias (the true sages) the filaments are very 
short and the two cells of the anther are separated by a 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



111 



long connective, balanced on top of the filament like the 
cross-beam of a well-sweep. The large half -anther on the 
short lower end has no pollen and the small half -anther at 
the long upper end is well supplied with pollen. If the 
lower half -anther ever had any pollen, it is clear that only 
the pollen of the upper half ever succeeded in reaching 
the pistil of another flower; and so, in the economy of 
nature, there being no further use for pollen in the lower 
half, no pollen is developed there any more ; but the weight 
of the organ remains as a balance to the vitalized end, in 
order to hold it in the proper position during an insect 
visit. 

In the common prickly-pear of our Western plains, the 
stamens are very irritable, and when a bee or other insect 
lights upon the flower, the stamens suddenly spring into 
the center, dusting the insect all around with the pollen. 

In the pond lilies the filaments of the outer whorls are 
expanded more and more, and the anthers reduced until 
the stamens are transformed into petals. The gradation 
from petals to stamens is complete. 

2.— FERTILIZATION. 
Hops have their male and female flowers on separate 
vines. They depend on the wind for fertilization. They 
are propagated largely by division from the root. In 
planting a hop vineyard young female plants are planted 
mostly. But it is necessary in every vineyard, in order 
to secure a profitable yield of hops, ,that at least one male 
vine be planted for every hundred hills. The best success 
comes from planting a male vine at every fifth pole all 
around the margin of the field. Within, the male vines 



112 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



need not be closer than the tenth pole in any given 
direction. 

A fruit may sometimes be a compound flower or a house 
of several chambers. The apple is a case in point. In this 
fruit there are five chambers, each containing four ovules 
capable of being developed into seeds. The stigma of an 
apple, though apparently simple, is five-fold, and requires 
at least five grains of pollen, judiciously distributed, for 
the perfect fertilization of its twenty ovules. But, though 
the pollen is not always well distributed, it usually receives 
more than that; so that fertilization of an apple does not 
oiten fail. 

Fertilization of one side of an apple does not necessarily 
fertilize all sides ; but that does not prevent the apple from 
developing into a full round apple; (though it may, and 
undoubtedly does, prevent the apple from developing most 
perfectly.) 

In the case of a tomato, a berry containing five cells 
separated by partitions, fertilization of one only of its 
cells causes that side to develop and grow to full size ; while 
the cells which have not received pollen fail to develop, 
causing the fruit to be one-sided and misshapen. Growth 
of a cell may be made circumf erentially as well as radially. 
For instance, a single cell may take up two-fifths or more 
of the circumference of the fruit; and thus the lack of 
pollenization of any of its parts may not be well noticed. 

Similarly, if one of the three cells of a melon, pumpkin, 
or other cucurbitaceous fruit, were to be prevented by any 
means from becoming fertilized, the other two cells would 
fill all the space, crowding two of the walls or partitions 
close together with only the undeveloped ova between them. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 113 

Prof. Bruce Fink, of the Minnesota Botanical Survey, 
Minneapolis, Minn., has performed a number of experi- 
ments in pollination of the common tomato, and learned 
this : That removal of the stigma or a part of the stigma 
of a flower does not prevent fertilization; as pollination 
of the cut portion of the style was quite as effective, owing 
to the viscous sap, as when pollination is effected in the reg- 
ular way. He also found, after many experiments, that 
twelve hours is about the time required for the contents 
of the pollen grain to pass from the stigma to the ovary. 

When the ovary of a flower is fertilized by pollen from 
stamens of the same flower, it is termed close fertilization. 
It is akin to inbreeding in animals. Continued inbreeding 
in plants, as in animals, has a tendency to weaken the vigor 
and vitality of the plants. 

To prevent this, nature provides in many ways for cross- 
fertilization, or for the reception of pollen from a different 
flower and plant. One of the most obvious of these methods 
is the separation of the males and females into separate 
flowers on the same plant or tree; and, quite often, sep- 
aration to separate plants or trees. 

Such trees usually depend upon the wind for pollination. 
Such pollen is not adhesive and does not stick to insects. 
The stigmas are adhesive and hold the pollen grains that 
fall upon them. The flowers of trees that depend on the 
wind for pollination are inconspicuous, like the hazel, 
willows, elms, maple, ash, box-elder, cottonwood, the oaks, 
hickories, walnut. And yet it is known, that most of them 
attract insects; bees fly out on the first warm days of 
spring and come back loaded with pollen, when nothing of 
consequence is in bloom but maple, elm, and willow. 

—8 



114 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



During the first few warm days, about the 20th of 
March, when the blossom buds have burst and the little 
stamens begin to hang down, if a twig be taken into the 
house and placed in a vase of water, in about 24 hours it 
will be seen that the stamens have lengthened and the 
anthers at their tips have swollen and burst, showing the 
yellow pollen. If now a sheet of paper be placed under 
the twig and if the twig be gently tapped a si^rpris- 
ingly large quantity of yellow pollen may be collected on 
the paper, thus showing the vast quantities of pollen that 
are developed in the flowers of trees that depend on the 
wind for fertilization. 

The pollen of such trees is nearly always yellow, varying 
in the different kinds of trees from a pale yellow to a deep 
sulphur yellow ; it is very fine, like the dust of flour, and 
capable of retaining vitality while being carried long dis- 
tances, even many miles, by the wind. 

Among the trees that depend on the wind for polleniza- 
tion of the female flowers are all kinds of willow, cotton- 
wood, maple, elm, ash, oak, hickory, walnut, and sycamore. 

Trees which have their male and female blossoms grow- 
ing on separate trees are the willows, box-elder, white ash, 
green ash, cottonwood, Carolina poplar, silver poplar, mul- 
berry (sometimes), honey locust, coffee bean, ailanthus, 
hackberry (sometimes), buckthorn (usually). 

Trees which have both kinds of blossoms growing sepa- 
rately on the same trees are the maples, elms, buckeyes, 
hackberry (usually), mulberry (sometimes), oaks, hick- 
ories, pecan, walnut. 

Trees which have "perfect" flowers are redbud, all our 
fruit trees, hawthorn, crabapple, pawpaw, black locust, 
wild cherry, buckthorn (sometimes), basswood. 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



115 



There is a constant tendency among all our trees toward 
dioeciousness ; that is, toward having the male and female 
floral organs on separate trees. For, whenever trees and 
plants are aided effectively in the dissemination of pollen, 
there is begotten in the future tree a dependence upon that 
aid and a tendency toward stronger sexuality one way or 
the other. Thus, new varieties of plum, grape, strawberry, 
etc., show a much stronger tendency toward the separation 
of staminate and pistillate flowers than formerly; other 
trees, as mulberry, hackberry, which theoretically have 
perfect flowers, show a strong inclination, in the most 
vigorous growing kinds, toward having special characters, 
as staminate or pistillate organs alone confined to an indi- 
vidual tree. And trees that are strictly dioecious show no 
tendency whatever toward a reversion to perfect flowers. 

On the other hand, inbreeding and self-fertilization in 
plants beget a tendency toward perfect flowers and facili- 
ties for inbreeding. Such trees and plants are not so 
vigorous; and in the struggle for existence are liable to 
be crowded out by the stronger plants whose life came 
from cross-breeding. 

3.— PKOVISION FOE GROSSING. 

In the case of our domestic fruits, which all have perfect 
flowers, various expedients for the prevention of inbreed- 
ing take place. 

1. The opening, in all kinds of fruit, of the anther in 
such manner that at time of opening it is turned upward 
or even away from the stigma in such fashion that pollen 
may be deposited upon the sides of a bee or other insect 
and carried away to another flower. 



116 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

2. The reduction of certain organs, leaving the organs 
of the opposite sex to develop fully. This is especially true 
of the strawberry, in which many plants bear female flowers 
only ; other plants have both sets of organs, but with one 
or the other more or less imperfectly developed. ' Varieties 
differ in these respects. In case a variety happen, like 
Crescent, or Princess, or Warfield, to be entirely pistillate, 
it is necessary to plant some variety carrying stamens, as 
Captain Jack, Cyclone, or Wilson's Albany, some variety 
coming into bloom at the same time, in the patch, to the 
number of say one row in three to one in ten, in order to 
have any berries. 

Plums are prone, both in our cultivated and wild varie- 
ties, to vary in such ways as to prevent self-pollination and 
to encourage cross-pollination. Stamens in some have long 
filaments, holding the anthers high above the stigma; in 
other flowers the reverse is true ; the stamens are reduced 
and ineffective. On account of defective stamens in the 
plum and cherry and grape, in many orchards and vine- 
yards, and on account of inability of some varieties of 
plums to fertilize themselves, it is not always best, if you 
happen to have one tree or vine, that is a vigorous bloomer 
but a shy bearer, to cut down that tree or vine. That mis- 
take has often been made, to the detriment of the orchard 
and the discomfiture of the owner. 

Another method of preventing self-pollination is the 
maturity of the organs on different days. This is quite 
common among all our domestic fruits, especially apple. 
Usually, in the case of the apple, it is the pistil which 
is first ripe and ready for the reception of the pollen ; the 
stamens are still growing and are not ready to discharge 



PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF KANSAS 



117 



their pollen until the next day or day after. By that 
time the pistil will accept no more pollen, being satisfied. 

Our garden fruits are insect-loving. Every detail of de- 
velopment in our fruits is for the purpose of inducing 
insect visits, especially those of bees. Color, form, odor, 
location of nectary, and methods of reaching it, are all 
best adapted to bees. It has been noticed that bees, when 
working on any flowers, visit that kind of flower only, and 
do not pass promiscuously from flowers of one species to 
those of another species or kind. Thus, while every effort 
is made by the flower to induce cross-pollination, it rarely 
happens that circumstances favor hybridization. 

The question is often asked why the seed of any particu- 
lar variety of fruit would not produce the same kind of 
fruit. The reason is very obvious. The flowers of no one 
variety can be depended on as having been pollenized from 
flowers of the same variety, since bees and insects visit all 
flowers which are agreeable to them; though the bees do 
not visit them promiscuously. It is a provision of nature 
that the pollen of any species of plants will only pollenize 
plants of the same species. When carried to the stigmas 
of flowers of a different species they remain inert or inac- 
tive; but they are active enough in the case of different 
varieties. When the flowers of any particular variety of 
fruit receive pollen from some other variety of the same 
fruit, and the resulting seed is planted, the fruit of the new 
tree, vine, or bush, should partake of the nature in part 
of both parents. It does not always follow that the result- 
ing product is superior to both of the parent vines, though 
it sometimes does happen that way; and in this lies the 
skill or success of the seedsman or pomologist, that he 



118 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 

may produce a variety of fruit superior in certain respects 
to anything else, and out of many trials reject and destroy 
all which do not reach the standard required by him. 

R. M. Kellogg, who raises great crops of small fruits, 
says : 

" Plants have their love matches and affinities. They 
receive pollen from one plant and reject it from an- 
other. They give evidence of enjoying the presence of 
some plants, while others are repulsive. Like the human 
family, different varieties have decided preferences for 
certain localities and environment; and one variety will 
not thrive on a soil deficient in some particular kind of 
plant food, while another would flourish there grandly." 

These peculiarities being so, it becomes necessary for the 
careful horticulturist to study the habits of his plants, their 
likes and dislikes ; for in no other way can he achieve the 
highest success. 



Grammar Handbook. 

AN OUTLINE 

Embracing the whole subject of English Grammar. A work 
based on the Course of Study for Kansas Common Schools 
and Normal Institutes. 

By F. C. JACOBY, 

Superintendent of City Schools, Lyons, Kansas. 



150 Pages. Paper, 25 cents ; Cloth, 35 cents, prepaid. 



This Outline is up to date in every particular. It is compre- 
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The author of this series of Arithmetics has grasped the great truth that the use of a 
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The use of these Arithmetics does not conflict with the official adoption of any 
County, City or State using other Arithmetics. They are regular text-books, and can 
also be used as supplementary work. 



Book for Grade I, 112 pages, cloth, 25 cents, prepaid. 
Book for Grade II, 128 pages, cloth, 30 cents, prepaid. 
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Crane & Co., Publishers, Topeka. 



John Brown, 

...BY... 

WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY. 



Full Cloth, 426 pages, Antique Paper, $1.00, Prepaid. 



The two numbers of the Classic, "John Brown/' bound in book 
form, with very copious notes and some additional text. The 
notes are full, and it is believed they are indispensable to a right 
understanding of the Territorial history of Kansas. Matters are 
discussed in them not mentioned in the Classics; this is especially 
true of the criticism of authorities. The notes give the text its 
full meaning — something it cannot always convey in their absence. 
Contains a complete index, making it a work of 426 pages. 

An accurate portrait of the grand old man forms the frontis- 
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This is the latest and most complete and valuable Life of 
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were opposed to him were in some cases inspired by town-site pro- 
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the old hero and martyr finds his right place in the history of 
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